taught me. CSP. You led the way. And.Chapter title here
Dedication
To all the people over the past 30-plus years who have worked with me. I merely follow. mentor. suffered with me. Client. to cause me to learn these lessons and be able to share them with others. partner.
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. to Jerry Wilson. shared with me. friend.

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Set Clear Goals for Time Use 7. Keep Score 19. Pareto’s Principle: 80–20 11. Set Deadlines for Assignments 17.Chapter title here
Contents
How to Use This Book Introduction: This Book Can Save You Time! 1. Assess Your Problem Areas 4. Write Down Tasks as You Receive Them 16. Getting Started Is the Toughest Step 2. Set Daily and Weekly Objectives 8. The C in ABC 15. The ABCs of Prioritizing 12. Write Down Your Goals and Objectives 6. The B in ABC 14. Consider a Time Study 3. Make a To Do List 20. Use the To Do List!
11 13 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
5
. The A in ABC 13. Don’t Procrastinate 10. Start Your Day the Night Before 9. Under-Commit and Over-Deliver 18. Establish Clear Goals for Your Job 5.

151 Quick Ideas to ... fill in blank
80. Make Certain Your Internet Connection Is at Speed 81. Virus Protection: Not an Option 82. More on PDAs 83. That Cell Phone! 84. Who Knows Your Cell Phone Number? 85. Cell Phone: Set to Stun 86. To BlueTooth or Not to BlueTooth 87. Is Text Messaging for You? 88. Get Your Own Printer! 89. Get Computer Training to Get More Efficient 90. The Third-Greatest Time-Killer 91. They Can’t be Avoided— But They CAN Be Efficient! 92. Meeting Timing—When Is Best? 93. Put a Time Limit on Meetings 94. Have an Agenda for Meetings 95. Use the Agenda—Time the Elements 96. Distribute the Agenda in Advance 97. Train Yourself on Conducting Meetings 98. Train Participants and Staff on Efficient Meetings 99. Attend Only the Meetings You Must 100. The Greatest Time Killer 101. Communicate Your Work Style 102. Adjust to Your Boss 103. Find a Mentor or Coach 104. Control Interactions With Others 105. The Geography of the Office 106. Desk Placement 107. Chair Placement 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 127 128 129 130 131

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127. Do It Commit to the Job—or Delegate It “It’s Not My Job. 130. 117. 129. 112. 114. 116. 121. Relationships to Windows Discourage “War Stories” Stand and Be Counted Learn to Say No Learn to Delegate: Discover What Your Staff Can Handle Learn to Delegate: Learn Where Others Can Handle Better Learn to Delegate: Train Your Staff to Handle Recognize That Procrastination Is a Habit— Work to Break It Don’t Put It Off. 115. 119. 125. Get Interested If You Don’t Like the Task. 131. 122. Do It and It Will Go Away Schedule Travel Trips in Batches Use Travel Time to Learn Use Travel Time to Communicate Use Travel Time to Unwind Use Travel Time to Prepare Use Airplane Time to Catch Up Use Travel Time to Read Set Personal and Family Goals Make Certain You Leave Time for Personal Goals 132 133 135 136 137 138 139 140 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 154 155 156 157 158 159
9
. 110. 123. 126. 124. Wimpy! If It’s on the To Do List. 120. 132. 111. 113. Man!” Beat the Fear of the Unknown Overcome the Insecurity of a Lack of Knowledge If You are Not Interested. 109.Chapter title here 108. 118. 128.

140. 136. fill in blank
133. Schedule Down Time During the Day Take Brief Breaks Don’t Overwork Yourself Schedule Medical and Dental Visits Well in Advance Schedule Medical and Dental Visits for Early Morning Grocery Trips: Buy Bulk Organize the Closet Don’t Make Special Trips—Combine Them Organize and Systematize Your Morning Procedure Train the Family Reward Yourself Don’t Be a Perfectionist Home Communication: Are You Over-Connected? TV Time Sucks Away From People Time Control Children’s Access to TV Control Children’s Access to the Internet Don’t Check Your Portfolio Every Day Schedule Vacations—and Take Them! Try to Live Close to Work 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 179 180 183 189
146. 138. 134. 143.. 139. 147. 135. 149.151 Quick Ideas to . Index About the Author
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. 151. 150. 141. 145.. 137. 148. 142. 144.

because some won’t be a good fit right now. Pass the idea along to _________. and don’t forget to give credit for their success! Invest in additional copies of this book and distribute them among your staff.Chapter title here
How to Use This Book
Every quick idea in this book has been selected to directly or indirectly help you gain and retain customers. you’ll go back and review the others periodically. Involve your staff in selecting and implementing these ideas. Read through all 151 quick ideas and select only those that can really make a difference at the moment. Don’t try to implement all 151 ideas at once. Don’t worry. and build a successful business. As your business changes. Label your ideas… Implement now. Get everyone involved in selecting and recommending various quick ideas. They have worked for others and will work for you!
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. Remember. Review again in 30 days. you will find new quick ideas that might suit you better now that competition is heating up. Revisit this book every 90 days. create relationships. all the ideas in this book have been proven in businesses across the United States and around the world.

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Get everyone involved in selecting and recommending quick ideas. Invest in some additional copies of this book and distribute them among your staff as required reading. your life will also be improved. Pass the idea along to __________________. Don’t try to implement all 151 ideas. and you will be
13
. If everyone uses his or her time better.Chapter title here
Introduction: This Book Can Save You Time!
Every quick idea in this book has been selected to directly or indirectly help you save time and stress through better organization. As your situation changes and new work and tasks come your way. Revisit this book every few months. Remember: All 151 ideas in this book have been proven by people similar to you all across the United States and around the world. you will find quick ideas you bypassed today that will save you time tomorrow. Do that. and better people management. They work! But you must implement and follow through with each one you choose. Label your ideas: Implement now. but help them as well. because some won’t be exactly right for you. Sometimes. Read through all 151 quick ideas and select only those that can really make a big difference in your life. Review again in 30 days (or 60 or 90 days). better time management. involving your staff in selecting and implementing some of these ideas will not only help you.

And isn’t that why you bought this book in the first place?
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.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time rewarded with more time and less stress in your life.

you). unfortunately the hard way. but also suffer the illness (she has places where you can recovered nicely. Take a look at your daily according to the doctor. of schedule and you’ll being on the go too much.Getting Started Is the Toughest Step
Just as people become addicted to drugs. people get addicted to the go-go lifestyles we all seem to live these days. the stress go through an event the finally got to her and she beway my neighbor did. You see. And it did not need to happen!
1
15
. and other such pastimes. but so too did her family suffer. My neighbor with three teenagers is constantly speaking proudly about her ability to manage multiple schedules and tasks and get it all done. in the next breath. Unfortunately. she also complains about never having enough time. and about never being able to spend “quality time” with her family. came severely ill—the result. thank save time and trouble. Of discover not only how course. food. about her day being totally fragmented to the point she can never concentrate on anything fully. It wasn’t until recently that she came to understand. cigarettes. Assignment that she needed to better Decide to get started control her time schedule evaluating YOUR lifestyle instead of allowing it to conbefore you too have to trol her. not only did she hectic it is.

But it was too dramatic of an event in her life to bring her to this realization. She reports that her health is better and her time with her family has increased. she did not call it that. she started a logbook of all of her daily activities. It’s not fancy and doesn’t require you to have any assets you don’t already have. and yet she still accomplishes everything that is important to her every day.
Epilogue
My neighbor used this illness as a warning and as a new beginning. So just as an alcoholic does. All the details.
Consider a Time Study
The first thing my neighbor did to change her life was conduct a time study. She recorded everything she did every day for two weeks. Once she was able. No. She evaluated her lifestyle and time management and began anew managing her time better. it’s time to assess—or reassess— our priorities. Many of us cannot afford such a dramatic event. but that is what she did.
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. But you will learn a great deal from it.
2
Assignment
Consider this simple time study technique.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
She used this “event” to analyze her lifestyle and daily routine and decided she needed to get a better handle on it. She now confesses to being a “reformed” time-a-holic (her words).

Epilogue
3
Assess Your Problem Areas
Now that you’ve conducted the time study. appointments. including when she went to the rest room. and who stopped by when. and so forth. but very useful. nonroutine tasks. this simple mechanism can work for you. She learned a lot about how she spent her time. After two weeks. routine tasks. and the gory details of every meeting and appointment. let’s see what you have learned. why it took that much time. meetings. She spent a few hours making notes on what she learned as she reviewed her logbook.
There are companies who require their employees to keep time study records so the company as a whole can examine time usage and make adjustments to its systems and procedures.Quick Ideas 2 to 3 Everything she did. she had enough data. and are armed with pages of information and notes. What can you learn about what causes the use
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. She kept times on all of these so she could go back later and find out what took what amount of time and. no. Now see what you can learn. Not scientific. because she kept excellent details. Group your activities into logical groupings: administrative duties. If it works for them. in many cases. This was her analysis. Are you surprised at some of the time? Does it seem excessive? Take a look at your notes for those areas.

This process leads to solutions. will make major differences in total time spent on tasks.
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. You cannot fix anything until you know where to look. one of the things you need to figure out is what you expect of that job in light of your career. We just don’t know where they are or what they are. places where some simple changes. Perhaps not even in one career field! At least. spend on that area? Sections of this book will What you will find are help. Now you do. start looking the amount of time you for ways to fix the problem.
4
Establish Clear Goals for Your Job
As you look at your job.
Assignment
Epilogue
Everyone has places and activities that use more time than they should. As we all now know.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
of time? Are there things you can control? Are there areas you can make For every area you define changes that might reduce as a problem. Probably not even in one company. that’s what the Department of Labor statistics are currently telling us. we will not spend our lives in any one job. many outlined in this book.

what objectives should you set for your current job? Look at that “progressive jobs” and “increasing responsibilities” stuff. With these goals in mind. and your time. accordingly.
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. You may need an industry specialization. You need professional association membership. Set career and job goals. not your boss’s or your want to accomplish for company’s. You need professional certification. Then work to every job you will ever achieve those goals and obhold. Plan your current job. then what do you need to accomplish to get there? You need a degree in public relations. You should establish Your own goals and objecclear objectives that you tives. You need a graduate degree. These goals should be made in light of your long-range aspirations. Then work to accomjectives within the context of plish those objectives. Do you need to start preparing for professional certification? Then set an objective and set aside Assignment time. your job activities. If your long-range goal is to be a senior officer of public relations and communications in a major company. These goals should logically help lead to the accomplishment of those long-range aspirations.Quick Ideas 3 to 4 So what is it that you expect from this job? Set some goals for your own personal and professional growth. Can you get that from this job? Then establish those as objectives. You will need progressive jobs in public relations in a number of sectors over a 20-year period with increasing responsibilities.

I went through this process many years ago at the urging of my then-boss. You need to write them down and refer to them routinely. and. they have not stayed perhaps monthly. I created new objectives for every job I ever held. of course. No. we simply wander through life aimlessly. basis. Write down your career But I wrote down those and life goals and the objecgoals and objectives in clear tives you have for your current language and have referred job. And aimless is likely to lead somewhere we don’t want to end up.
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. Keep exactly the same. fied. Keep them somewhere to them routinely ever since.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
If we don’t have goals and objectives.
5
Write Down Your Goals and Objectives
It is not enough to just establish some career goals and job objectives. you can refer to on a routine. I can’t thank him enough now for putting me through that Assignment exercise. Some of updating them as you move the goals have been modifrom job to job.

Epilogue
Written records allow you to do some decision-making about your jobs and your career—sometimes even your life.
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. These written records I still have in the original notebook I first used to create them. such as when to change jobs. Writing them down also gave me a life document to refer to when faced with major career and life decisions. or in addition to your work. and your job objectives. They are valuable life tools.
6
Set Clear Goals for Time Use
Armed with your life and career goals. I have a clear record 25 years later of how I came to be on the road I am on today. Look over your job objectives and allocate time every week or month for achieving these objectives. or when to consider certain activities at certain times.Quick Ideas 5 to 6 But because I wrote them down. This also helps you make decisions about which additional duties you might take on and which activities you take on after work. And they help you know what you want from every job and what kind of time you should spend on those personal objectives in each job. you can now begin to create some expectation of the time you should spend on them.

Your weekly objectives might be quite modest.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
For example.
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. they will add up and lead to achieving those job objectives and lead to meeting career goals. A very useful device. establish some time for achieving those objectives. taken over weeks and months. or time after work. But establish how you plan to use your time to get these objectives accomplished. It helped me orient my time both on the job and after the job to my long-range career goals. or time from both areas. establish some daily and weekly objectives that involve time working to achieve them. A couple of jobs ago.
7
Set Daily and Weekly Objectives
With these time allocations. but. And I established time every month to be involved in that association.
Epilogue
Not only will this process help you achieve your life and career goals.
Assignment
Using your job objectives for your current job. one of my goals was to become involved in a professional association of my peers. It might be time during the workday. but it will also help you orient yourself to the job and plan for the time you use on the job. I set a job objective to do just that.

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Start Your Day the Night Before
The best way to get off to a good start in the morning is to do it the night before! Yes. you’ll find yourself out of time every time and you’ll never get there.Quick Ideas 6 to 8 The key point here is planning to allocate time to spend on the key things in your life. you’ll get there.
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. and often should. If you only use time for these things as it comes available.
Assignment
Establish some overall time objectives each day and week to spend on achieving your job objectives. If you set aside time. It’s a simple thing to do. Don’t forget your obligations to them. Prepare for your day the night before by doing some simple things that will help you begin your day efficiently and effectively. This will make certain you will get to those goals you set for your life and career. This can. include personal goals and objectives that involve family.
Epilogue
Planning for your future and for your success is the name of the game here.

when you walk in you are ready to start.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
First. read any materials rations you need to then. Your preparation is already done. efficiently. your preparations for the next day the night before. at the end of each day prior to leaving for home. and prepared. you need to consume in You’ll begin your day fresh preparation. Determine the major activities and tasks you will be accomplishing the next day and do any preparation Assignment that might be appropriate: retrieve the necessary files.
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. and with no delays for preparation. effectively. but one of the most time-consuming and time-challenging problems many people face is procrastination. review your schedule for the next day. Start your day the night send any coordinating mesbefore by making any prepasages.
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Don’t Procrastinate
I’ll write more about this later in the book. Then.
Epilogue
This technique has the added advantage of preparing you psychologically for the day and giving your day a great start. not behind the The idea is to make all schedule already.

80 percent of the rewards we receive come from only 20 percent of the effort. and managing your time badly. stop. He observed that. pay particular isn’t interesting. don’t know enough about. It’s Do some self-analysis. some studies have shown procrastination to cost a person twice as much time as the task should take. you are costing yourself lots of time. so who’s this Pareto guy and why do we care? Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist.Quick Ideas 8 to 10 Procrastination is putting things off instead of Assignment doing them right away. If you because it isn’t exciting or need help. arenot prepared for. Are you one of those people? Do you put things off until the last minute? If so. Though not terribly damaging in the big picture of things. Or perhaps attention to Ideas 115–123 it’s just a project that you of this book. waiting until the last minute Determine if you are a proto complete a task or project crastinator. It’s one of the most significant causes of lost time and overtime. If so.
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Pareto’s Principle: 80–20
Okay.
Epilogue
Procrastination is terribly costly in time and efficiency. in any give endeavor. Start thinking about this now. or is threatening in some way. He’s telling
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.

not quite. If we put the stuff that brings us reward first. tizing your work. the stuff that we are rewarded for should be the most important stuff we do and should get priority for our attention. as you will That’s pretty depressing! in the next few ideas. So what does it mean to us? How do we use this information? Knowing this allows us to prioritize our work appropriately. professional. how do we organize this?
26
.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
us that only 20 percent of the work we do will lead us to most of the rewards in As you think about priorilife.
Assignment
Epilogue
Let’s face it: though it all needs to get done. but most of our reward does come from a very small percentage of our work. only 20 percent of the work we do? Well. rememWe will be rewarded for ber Pareto’s Principle.
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The ABCs of Prioritizing
The first step in getting control of your time management is to prioritize your work. We will want to put the things that we believe will bring us the proper rewards—personal. organizational—high on our priority list and everything else lower.

We’ll call them Category A.
Epilogue
Not everything is high priority. Assignment Now go ahead and set Regularly prioritize your up your prioritization systasks. This system allows you to organize effectively around the things that are important. Not everything is really important. and C. and C is low priority. walk you through what fits in each category. from high to low priority. The next few ideas will Use this ABC system. B is medium priority. They are things that have a due date near today. A is high priority. These are things that meet some or all of the following criteria: Not doing them will get you fired.
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. And not everything has to be done today. make up your To Do List.
12
The A in ABC
The priority items are the must do’s. especially when you tem and do this routinely. The system just asks you to organize all your work into three categories. B. Doing them fit the 20-percent rule of Pareto’s Principle.Quick Ideas 10 to 12 It’s not brain surgery. but there is a simple system to help.

Manage them closely and get them done. That is your A List. Remember. It doesn’t matter. That might be you or it might be your boss. They are assigned by the boss. Then the system has no value. but there will be criteria that will dictate that some things need to be done NOW.
Assignment
Prioritize your tasks and duties. Just don’t make everything an A List item. Things that take priority over everything else. Examine your tasks and organize the B List. Things that are important. Your criteria might be different. Decide which are A priority and put them at the top of your To Do List. It should be a group of
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. They are important. it’s important to someone important.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
They are things that match your personal and professional goals or objectives.
Epilogue
Use your To Do List to manage these items.
13
The B in ABC
The B priorities are things that need to be done but are not necessarily of major consequence or not due soon. if it’s on the A List. Things that have consequences.

But don’t think you why they are not as imporcan forget about these tant as A List items. Perhaps they things that simply aren’t due don’t need to get done until yet or have lesser consea week from now. But perhaps tomorrow. quences.Quick Ideas 12 to 13 tasks that need to get completed but either are not Assignment important enough to get Look at your remaining done today or tomorrow. They may not proPut your B List on your vide the potential for reward To Do List below the A List or there’s some other reason items. Many will simply still need to be accomplished.. So as you have time. That’s why they go on your To Do List in the first place: to be managed and fit in when you can.. Cull out those done soon. or tasks after the A List is simply don’t need to get determined.
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.
Epilogue
Never forget that B List items still have to be done. but they tasks. They just don’t necessarily need to be done today. work on some B List items along with the A List. closer. move up into the A List over Get those B items on your time as their due dates get To Do List..

ignore it otherwise.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
The C in ABC
Now to that C List. And that’s a pretty good way to look at your C List. He put all his C List work in the bottom drawer of his desk. Stuff that has no potential for rewards. He always put his A List in a basket on his desk to be worked on immediately. You see. he see if any should move up. Put them bottom drawer. Stuff that isn’t critical. His B List items he had in another basket below the A List basket. And he never brought it out unless someone asked about it. become part of the B List. But his C List. But first. It’s stuff that just isn’t that important. Put it in the C List and do it if you have time. If its status changes. If someone away somewhere and recame in and asked him view them occasionally to about one of those items. We all get that stuff. that was where of them. They often died in the them on the C List. Stuff no one is likely to care about. a story. age as good wine does. now that was a different story. let them work went to die for him. Earlier in my career I had a friend who used the ABC system. Otherwise. you can always move it up to the B List. his C List was Assignment comprised of items that simply were not important to Take those items that him or anyone he cared are not important and put about.
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. would pull it out and it would If you have extra time (ha!). go ahead and work on some Otherwise.

Put it where it
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.
15
Write Down Tasks as You Receive Them
We often get instructions and tasks passed to us verbally. it’s certainly the most common. Something that was unimportant today might suddenly turn out to be important next week. Assignment It should be written as soon as possible after it is Write down verbal ingiven so the memory of structions and new tasks the instructions is fresh and communicated verbally. it on to your To Do List. Though not always the best way to do this. Otherwise. Sometimes projects and tasks have to be moved up for a variety of reasons. It’s always a good policy to immediately make a note about any task given to you verbally. To Do List. and It should also immediallows you to track your task ately go on your prioritized to success. gets detail you were provided. in the heat of the daily battle. sometimes these things can be forgotten. concentrate on the stuff that matters. in your crowded schedule.Quick Ideas 14 to 15
Epilogue
Do remember to occasionally review your C List. This begins your work record for the task or project and allows you to have a document to remind you of it. Unfortunately. you can capture all the This starts your record.

It also saves you with all the details so you don’t have to waste time going back for information you were already provided.
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Set Deadlines for Assignments
All of your assignments and everything on your To Do List should have a deadline for completion. Setting deadlines provides you with a planning Assignment and organizing tool.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
belongs. one of your project’s deadline is the day you return. That way you will not forget it as your review your To Do List every day.
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. This deadline should be one you impose yourself and should be a day or so before the actual deadline. if you are out with a buffer in case of sick a couple of days and problems. So.
Epilogue
Capturing this information in writing saves you time later in remembering the task late and having to scramble to get it done. but get it on there. slippage in your work Make them one or two days schedule while still allowin advance of the actual ing the work to get done deadline to provide yourself on time. and setting deadlines early Assign deadlines for allows for problems or every task and project.

It a danger we all face conwill require you to be tough stantly. more importantly.Quick Ideas 15 to 17 you don’t have to scramble to get it done. It means that you need to protect about 20 percent of your time to use to
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. It means that you might have to delegate some work.
Epilogue
I use this method routinely. but this is other unpredicted work. and to keep your commitments. This means that sometimes you have to say no to people. because you have built in some buffer time between your deadline and the actual deadline. Fence part of every day Later I’ll write about the for contingencies and for ability to say NO.
17
Under-Commit and Over-Deliver
One of the pitfalls of all work is the danger of overAssignment committing yourself to work. setting deadlines early. You need to be able with decision-making. you will have to develop the both professional and perability to say no or say sonal.” you some ability to easily adjust to changing conditions and changing priorities. at a level that allows “later. and I find that my bacon has been saved many times without burning the midnight oil by having deadlines and.

I don’t mean you versus everyone else. and better than anyone else. Don’t just do the job—do it right. I mean keep score against the To Do List—against all
Assignment
As you complete tasks and projects. check them off your To Do List visibly. Yet you can plan for them if you keep yourself only 80 percent committed.
18
Keep Score
We all keep score. Just as importantly. or someone who asks you to help coach the office softball team after work. That kind of behavior brings rewards. That’s what leads both to job satisfaction as well as supervisor satisfaction. Protect 20 percent of your time and you’ll save time later.
Epilogue
Obviously you cannot say no to your boss. Of course we do. But by keeping score on the job. Use a special color to annotate tasks that are completed. you need to give more than 100 percent on every task or project. on time. But you can say no to someone who asks you to serve on a committee.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
handle the many things that just come up and cannot be planned for. Let’s admit it. The To Do List will start to resemble a score card and you’ll get motivated by it.
34
. Keeping score is the American way! And it’s not a bad thing to do on the job as well.

it works quite effectively for most people.Quick Ideas 17 to 19 those tasks that you have to accomplish. the items on the list. creating a To Do List is a great tool for making the most of the time available to you. I’m tracking my success. And I keep doing that every day. they save time. I am keeping score. yes.
19
Make a To Do List
Managing your time means knowing what to do with your time. I use a red line to do that. The list keeps you aware of the tasks you need to accomplish and provides you with a tool to manage those tasks. Once I started using a To Do List. On your To Do List. follow these simple procedures:
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.
Epilogue
I’ve had others try this trick in other offices I’ve worked in. It keeps them on task and actually makes them more efficient. And. It stands out. As I see things getting done by red lines appearing on my list. It’s actually quite motivating and keeps me on task and on target. And although it doesn’t always work (because some people are simply not competitive). check them off boldly as you go. To make the best use of a To Do List. I became much better at managing my time—and I saved time as well! A To Do List is simply that: a list of things that must be done. Although it seems an inconvenience. It’s almost a personal reward system to see how I’m doing against the other team—that is.

As such. 3. Remake it once a week or so. But I didn’t tell you how.
20
Use the To Do List!
I already said that. age it. 2. I know. and save you time. Then order them by date of requirement (when the task must be accomplished).
36
. If you are comfortable using these programs. 4. Check off items that are completed. Use it. then do so. Manuse it. be more efficient.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
1. just use a lined piece of paper.
Epilogue
Using a To Do List will help you prioritize your work. List all tasks that have to be accomplished. If not. you should refer to Create a To Do List and it routinely. Some software programs allow you to create and manage Task Lists or To Do Lists. The To Do List should be your primary task Assignment management tool. Here’s my story. Update routinely (once a day should do). steal any good ideas from it. Update it as new tasks come in and as you complete old tasks.

and those due later are at the bottom. I add them to the list in the right order of priority. you know. I often will put something toward the top that requires Assignment a great deal of work so I get Start using your To Do to it soon enough to have the List on a daily basis to manproject done on time. I cross them off the list. As new tasks come in that I am responsible for.
37
. I review my To Do List and set my day’s work accordingly.
Epilogue
I have found that using a To Do List saves me time and makes certain that I don’t have to “burn the midnight oil” because I forgot something. those things due soon are at the top of the list. ally important to me or the organization might end up higher on the list than the due date suggests. At the end of the day I review and…well. As you can imagine. In adage your workload and your dition. This is not foolproof. I reprioritize anything due the next day by moving it to the top of the list so I’ll see it first thing in the morning. As tasks are accomplished. anything that is retime. I reprioritize anything else according to when it is due.Quick Ideas 19 to 20 Every evening before I go home I review my To Do List. Every morning.

My boss can quickly look Make your To Do List at my To Do List and see available to others in your if I can handle another office. If you don’t use an electronic list everyone can see. to be useful. Of course.
38
. they are looking to get help on a project or pass on some work. and can also help communicate all the tasks you are working on to your boss. boss. It helps when the boss is determining who is to take on new projects or tasks to review others to Assignment see what their workload is. it has to be accurate and up to date. if you don’t have much to do.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
21
Share the To Do List
Because my To Do List is electronic. simply post yours outside your door or cubicle. Of course. This helps communicate Members of my work your workload to others so team can do the same when they don’t gang up on you. Everyone knows what I’m working on and can adjust accordingly. expect some work to come your way!
Epilogue
This will save you from project or task overload. I share that with the other members of my work team and my boss. and especially to your project or task. hopefully.

As a result. It’s a great way to track what you have done on a given day or during a given week. as projects change and deadlines get moved. make sure you add all new tasks and get them in the priority list. and may pass on Keep your To Do List new work and tasks to scrupulously up to date. When I did a manual To Do List (pen and paper) I always provided a copy to my boss every Monday morning so he knew what I was working on. you annotate that on your list and adjust the items on the priority list. then spend evening hours catching up when you discover the error. If the list is out of date.Quick Ideas 21 to 22
22
Update the To Do List
The To Do List is worthless if it is not up to date—worthless to you and worthless to others. some of your workload if you appear to be overloaded. And others—or relieve you of provide a copy to your boss. you can’t trust it to tell you where your priorities lay. missing just one item can cause you no end of headaches later.
39
. you could easily spend time on a project or task at the expense of something due very soon. And if it’s up to date. When you start relying on this list. your boss will see how you are managing time and Assignment work. Finally. you need to update the list as you go so that. always check off items that have been accomplished. Of course. Also.

Follow some of the time is often controlled by simple ideas that follow. If not. reorgative as it could be. And provide a copy to your boss. But usually a cluttered Examine your work desk means it’s managed space to determine if it is by a cluttered mind.
23
Organize Your Workspace: General
You’ve all seen those signs over people’s desks: “A cluttered desk is a brilliant mind. and a organized to allow you to mind that is not as producwin the war. Your nize.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
At first my boss wasn’t sure why I was giving him the list. Keep your To Do List scrupulously up to date.” Assignment Nonsense.” Well. After about two weeks he found it so valuable that he started requiring it of everyone who worked for him. But that’s similar to those signs in kitchens that read: “Never eat food cooked by a skinny chef.
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. maybe. how well you control your environment.

Quick Ideas 22 to 24 Your workspace is your castle! At least while you are at work. so give it a go. Save time by being efficient.
41
. or paper. Start with your workspace. Is it orderly? Is it organized to allow you to work efficiently? Does it help you control the flow of work. There is no one
Assignment
Take a look at your desktop organization. Be efficient by being organized. Makeovers are very popular now. And your castle should be organized in such a way as to allow you to be as productive and efficient as possible. If I find piles of paper in no seeming order all over the desktop. Efficiency leads to saved time. and examine your office or cubicle.
24
Organize Your Workspace: The Desktop
The first problem area I usually find when I help people get organized is the desktop. I know I have my work cut out for me. or visitors? If not. So think about how you work. but is also fairly personal. Organizing is fairly simple. you need think about an office makeover.
Epilogue
Organization leads to efficiency. Is everything stacked up haphazardly? Disorganized? Spread out all over the place? Get organized! Conduct a makeover of your desktop.

create one. is important. the computer. Keep office supplies in a drawer somewhere. the telephone. and notepads should not be strewn about the desk. pens. or by mail? Is there a central location on your desk where such new assignments can live until you handle them? If not. office supplies. easy to reach but out of the way. The easiest way is the traditional manila folder. then organize them.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
way or right answer. Put the folder in a file or in a wire rack on your desktop. by e-mail. pencils. However. They are: How does work come to you? By paper. Have the computer where you can reach it easily. The traditional “in basket” is still a useful tool today.
Epilogue
Organization saves time.
42
. Pens. but in a drawer at easy reach. even notes from meetings. And time is what we are after. there are some principles that you should consider. How do you manage the documents for a task or project? Are then stacked up in a pile somewhere? Do you know where? Organizing these documents. Where are your tools (pencils. Put the phone at hand. not behind you. and so forth)? If they are scattered about haphazardly. Only you can decide the best way to organize your desktop.

Again.
25
Epilogue
Getting all your paper into folders creates order from chaos and productivity from waste. Not only do you waste your time. Use manila folders and mon folder. but you tend to waste others’ time as well as they wait for you on the phone or in the office. it ends up in piles on the desk. and will truly save you time during each and every day. Chrofor you. Put Organize your paper all documents into a comfiles.
43
. So. All too often. the best solution Assignment is the traditional one: the ubiquitous manila folder. nological works if you date all your files. Organize them establish a system that works in any way you want. Whatever works for you is the best way to do it. This leads to lost time while you look for just the right document or file or report. Or you might want to attach the project or task time line on the inside cover and organize the papers inside by content. what to do with all that paper.Quick Ideas 24 to 25
Organize Your Workspace: Paper Files
Those who said the computer would lead us to the paperless office were lying! There’s more paper than ever.

Ignore them all! Organize them any way you want so long as you know what the system is and where the files can be Assignment found. You’ll find it. Nothing fancy. no fuss. so what do you do with all those folders you’ve just made? Stack them back on the desk? I think not! Create a filing system instead.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
26
Organize Your Workspace: Folders
Okay. Project name by alpha order. but any system has been demonstrated to save up to 15 minutes a day compared to those with no system. a real timeracks where I can easily saver. My system for the filing cabinet? Simple: alphabetical. I store older files in a filing cabinet.
Epilogue
You will find yourself much more productive using a filing system. That’s all that matters. active folders for working Try it. reach them. No muss. or someprojects on my desk on wire thing similar to it. There are lots of books out there that tell you how to organize your files.
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. It’s easy even for someone else to find if I’m out of the office. This system is simple My method is to keep and easy to set up and use.

I always find that it is helpful to keep current task and project folders right on the desktop so I don’t have to search for them or take three or four clicks to reach them. remember: A little here and a little there. for your tasks and projects.
Epilogue
You’ll save an enormous amount of time doing this. I suspect I’ve saved about 15 minutes a day over my old haphazard system. reports. Again. Once I got the handle on this system.
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.Quick Ideas 26 to 27
27
Organize Your Workspace: Electronic Files
But the paper files are not the only files we have today. All those computer Assignment records. Also remember to clearly label the various documents in the folder so you can tell what is in the document. and so forth need Set up folders and files to go somewhere too. One click opens the folder and the list of documents. e-mails. Nothing wastes time as much time as having to open three or four documents until you find the right one just because your labels were sloppy. and you’ve saved a significant amount of time. and with the same labels you used for paper folders. set up folders for Put the current ones on your them all and name the elecelectronic desktop for quick tronic folders the same way retrieval. Again. memos.

it will save you common product. and there time daily as you need that are a number of very good information. The old system. You address memos and letters all the time. ACT. including to keep it up to date. and Goldmine to name just a few. The only weakness was that it is a written record. Paper is slow compared to these electronic address books. And. onto labels. Microsoft Outlook.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
28
Organize Your Workspace: Contacts
You have to call people all the time. Once that information in an elecyou spend the time to set it tronic database. and into databases and spreadsheets. You send mail all the time. if you use a PDA (personal data assistant). was to keep an address book. Just remember ones out there. The advantage to all of these products is that they are electronic. Now that’s time-saving efficiency. Establish your elecToday I am much more tronic address book. I use a up initially. you can synchronize your data right to the PDA from your computer and have all that data at hand when you are out of the office. a paper address book with little colored tabs and everything.
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. Pick an efficient because I keep all application and use it. Yes. one I grew up on. not Assignment an electronic one. So you need a quick way to reach your contacts or their information. And it worked fine. You can export information quickly from them into word processing documents. And you can look things up very quickly.

But they toss whelm you. So fast you suddenly run out of room to store them. including memos. ments: old memos (their rule is older than three
47
. The firm produces a lot of paper. and so on.Quick Ideas 28 to 29
Epilogue
The combination of the electronic address book and a PDA has been one of the most important time-saving tools of the past decade. What to do? Get rid of them.
29
Organize Your Workspace: Cull Your Files
Sometimes they just get away from you. You should take advantage. final reports. basic research Don’t let your files overdocuments. She indicates that they have one day each month where everyone in the firm goes through their files and cleans them out. Cull and kill on anything that was used to a routine basis—perhaps create those final docuonce a month or quarterly. as many others have. research documents. I have a colleague who works at a consulting firm. Those old files build up fast. She says they have to be ruthless about it! They keep anything that has long-term value: Assignment samples for future work. draft reports.

All that goes. It’s the highlight of their day. the survey returns from research or interview records from old interviews.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
years). Their goal is to keep from having to store anything in longterm storage. Set your schedule to get it and handle it.
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. such as financial records and personnel records. both of these behaviors are time-wasters.
Epilogue
Old records just make it hard to find the valuable stuff. Do that around your other projects. Don’t destroy records you are legally bound to keep.
Assignment
Mail and internal distribution usually happens around the same time or times every day in most organizations. everything is shredded. personal notes of meetings and calls.
30
Handle Your Mail Efficiently
Some people just wait all day for the mail and distribution to arrive. don’t let this stuff interrupt your thinking and working processes. Unfortunately. To protect their clients. Unfortunately. but retain anything that would be of lasting value. they often end up anticipating it. and it takes your time to wade through it all. and when it arrives just have to jump on it immediately no matter what they are doing.

you lose time. those
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. Into each file folder (yep.
31
Use a Suspense File
One time-killer. you keep control. is forgetting a key deadline. Don’t let it drive your schedule. and set a time to handle it. The way to keep this from happening is to establish a “suspense file. It costs time. This leads to lost time. and that sets you back on other projects you’ll have to catch up on the next day. What happens? You work late to get it done. Ever happen to you? Of course. I know. as they then have their day fragmented by that activity. and one that causes late nights and much worry. You discover at 3 o’clock in the afternoon that you have forgotten to create a report to be used at a meeting the next morning. All too often I see people stop something important or interrupt a project to open their mail and look at internal distribution.
Epilogue
Every time you let something or someone break into your flow of work. Don’t let this happen to you.” This is a simple set of files numbered from 1 to 31. These represent the days of each month (yes. but…).Quick Ideas 29 to 31 The best way to handle mail and internal distribution is to just let it arrive when it arrives. not every month has 31 days. They have to return to that project and get back into it before they are as effective as they were when they were engrossed in it.

And the only way to do that is to keep a calendar or scheduler for all the activities you are involved in and are scheduled to participate in. For example. Then. original task document. check your suspense file. it has saved many hours of late nights.
32
Keep Only One Planner/Scheduler
You absolutely need to have command of your schedule. if something is going to take longer to accomplish. This system keeps you from being surprised and helps you organize your work time.
Epilogue
This one simple trick has reduced the amount of hours I have had to spend doing things at the last minute to a bare minimum. Of course. if Create a suspense file you have a report due on for yourself and check it Friday the 10th.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
pesky manila folders) put any document or a note of an action that is due the Assignment next day. And as a consequence. Remember that folder for the 9th put a reit will not work for you unminder document or the less you use it regularly. Keep it as detailed as you can. each morning.
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. in the file every day. put that item a few days earlier in the file folder.

This allows you to refer to it routinely to make certain you are on time to meetings and appointments.” Their office/cubicle is just packed full of their stuff.Quick Ideas 31 to 33 There are a number of excellent computer applications that will help you with this. however. Just add them to the schedule each day as notes. Know anyone
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. You could. though: scheduler for yourself that keep only one of these. You can also use one of these to track your deadlines. one in a small pocket calendar. use a PDA.
33
What to Keep—and What Not to Keep
Some people just can’t do without their “stuff. or you can simply create one with paper forms. Then your suspense file and your scheduler both help you stay on target to get everything done on Assignment time. but it is almost certain you will forget to update one or the other and will miss something. Create a daily planner/ A reminder.
Epilogue
How does this save time? It keeps you from missing something and having to take extra time to make up for it. includes all your tasks for Don’t try to have one in each day and any meetings your computer and another or appointments. Not only is this duplication of effort.

Epilogue
Don’t waste time trying to find things. you begin to lose track of where everything is. Put everything in its right place and store away things that will cost you time working around later. do need it. Organize. store it away somewhere where you can get at it when you need it. Store the stuff So it costs extra time.
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.” If you don’t Keep your workspace clear need it. sloppy record-keeping. So. As a result. he has it—and Inventory your workknows he has it—he just has space. that old stuff. Put everything else Guard against this loss you just think you might need of time by getting rid of all somewhere out of the way. Get rid of to search for it every time. It leads to sloppy filing. that “stuff. put it in a routine place you can find it easily. If you and ready for action. but when too much stuff accumulates. when someone Assignment requests something from my friend. and an inability to keep control of your work environment.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
like that? I have a friend who simply cannot throw anything away.” Ordinarily this would not be much of a problem. his office is completely cluttered with all his “stuff. If you “might” need it. but somewhere that doesn’t clutter your work environment. you use. get rid of it.

What do we do with all those drafts we now have? Most of us file them forever! Why? They are no good to anyone. There is absolutely no reason to keep that stuff around junking up files.
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. Shred them marks. If you need that. keep them only until that need is gone. So the answer is to pitch that stuff! Draft documents should be kept only as long as the final document has not been used or approved. all those drafts should be shredded and disposed of. We pass them Start today with a new around for others to review.
Epilogue
There is only one reason to keep any draft documents: CYA.Quick Ideas 33 to 34
34
What to Do With Draft Documents
We all have those documents we write that Assignment are drafts. policy of disposing of draft get their comments. red documents. document for use. and corrections. and after the final version is used then compile a final or approved. Once that happens.

and I don’t need a bunch of cards hanging around cluttering my workspace.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
35
Handle Business Cards
We all give them out.
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. Because I write notes on the backs of the card—the place I met the person. and we all get them all the time. perhaps the best way. and their information. Another way is to buy card notebooks. It’s a useful convention in our society. database. Certainly just keeping them in a desk drawer is not the right answer. Business cards from people we meet and do business with—or not. you will then have to waste time searching for it. These are smallsized binders with inserts for business cards. And we always exchange business cards. It’s served its usefulness. Every time I go somewhere I tend to meet new people. But those business cards can sure build up. for future use. I have stacks of them in my office. Then I pitch the card. Because when you need one. Just don’t let them pile up. Find a method of filing them that makes sense to you. circumstances. There are a couple of ways to handle all those cards so they can be useful. The best way is the datayou return to the office. especially a contact That’s what I do routinely. is to simply make Assignment a point of transferring the data from the business card Pick a solution and use to a contact database once it. base. One way. Though not as useful as a database. these offer a neat way to maintain those cards. personal observations— I also transfer that information to the database.

however. is your most effective working hours. You might be an evening Assignment person or an afternoon perBe a little introspective son. for example. Then schedule person. We all have them. put them
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.m. and most efficient working If you are a morning hours are. Whichever you are. You might be different. am a morning person. I.
36
Know Your Best Working Hours
Scheduling is important to creating an efficient workday. I rise every day at 5 a. One of the first things you need to understand about yourself. and determine what your best plan your day accordingly.Quick Ideas 35 to 36
Epilogue
I’ve watched friends who simply toss their cards in a side desk drawer search through that drawer for the card from someone they suddenly want to call or contact. If you are an afternoon person. and they tend to be different for everyone. Scheduling. put your most imporyour most important work tant task early on your for that time of day.m. An analysis of my productivity showed me that I actually get 65 percent of my day’s work done in the first four to five hours of the day. What a waste of time! A little organization goes a long way. and am at work by 7 a. I am very efficient and task-oriented in the morning hours. although considered restrictive by some. schedule. is the best tool in our arsenal to combat wasted and lost time.

37
Make Critical Appointments at Your Best Times
One of the things you want to do with your best working times is schedule important appointments and meetings when you are at your best and most efficient. as I am. If you are a morning person.
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. when you are at your best. It simply makes the best use of your time. and use that knowledge in getting the most out of your day. schedule important meetings.
Epilogue
This doesn’t mean you ignore the rest of the day! It just means that you acknowledge when you are at your best and take advantage of that. appointments. Though this is not always possible.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
in the afternoon. Know when you are at your most efficient. and office calls during your peak working times. focus on getting most of them in when you are most efficient. I find I’m more efficient and use time better that way. and office calls for the morning.
Assignment
Schedule meetings. appointments.

it only makes sense that if you schedule similar tasks together. You’ll find the same thing happening to you.
Assignment
Group similar tasks together during the day or week. once you know what your best working times. So.Quick Ideas 36 to 38 I’m also sharper then and do better work during the mornings. Scheduling these events later in the day for me leads to longer meetings and longer appointments because I’m not at my sharpest. You’ll find that you can be much more efficient if you group all your like tasks together at one time.
38
Group Similar Tasks
Once you are on a roll with one kind of task.
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. you will be more focused and less fragmented. conduct your important meetings then. Things don’t take as long and the outcomes are better. Those that were held in the afternoon always went 15–20 minutes longer than those in the morning—even if it was the same group on the same topic! Strategic scheduling of meetings does save time.
Epilogue
I timed meetings I called. So. You’ll find you have shorter meetings with better outcomes when you schedule this way. You’ll be more efficient and use your time better. Your outcomes will also be better because you’ll be focused in your work. you are focused on the elements and the type of work required for that task.

58
. I also get a series of unpleasant tasks out of the way all at once. too. Once you know your most effective time of the day. We need to do this with our work schedule. I hate doing this stuff. Fence the time to keep others out. Protect them and you’ll be much more productive and go home on time.
39
Put Up a Fence
When we fence our yards. I can get it done as quickly as possible. I was not nearly as efficient with time. I group all my administrative tasks together at one time of the day—sometimes one time each week. put up a fence. I found four more areas I could do with this. it is either to keep something in—a pet.
Epilogue
Once I discovered the efficiencies of doing administrative tasks all together. With my way. Or kids. for example—or to keep something out—such as someone else’s pet.
Assignment
When you plan your day—as you must (see the next few ideas on scheduling)—make certain you fence your most efficient times. so I group it all together so that when I do focus on it.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
For example. It has saved me significant time every week. It tended to fragment the day and cost time. I found that when I scattered these tasks throughout the day or week. I looked at other tasks I could group together for efficiency.

Send them away with an appointment for later. block the time out. A client calls for a long chat about a future project she wants you to work on—and eats up 45 minutes. How to do that? Some tricks: If you share electronic calendars. An employee has a personal problem and just needs
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. Don’t check your e-mail (and stop the system from popping up with that “you have mail” message!). What can happen? Your boss stops by with a new assignment and eats up a half hour. close it.
40
Block Contingency Time Every Day
Stuff happens! We all know that. These unplanned activities can certainly eat away at a day.Quick Ideas 38 to 40 The more you keep them out.
Epilogue
Fencing that time keeps you in and minimizes the distractions and interruptions—and thus makes the best use of your time. If you get interrupted. the more you can concentrate on your work during your most effective time of the day without getting fragmented and interrupted. Put your phone on DND (do not disturb). Almost every day things occur that you have not planned for you yet must be dealt with. especially if you don’t plan for them. If you have a door. be polite but dismissive.

He was spending more than two hours a day on unplanned activities.
41
Scheduling: A 5-Step Process
Scheduling is a process.
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. so he was spending an extra two hours each evening catching up.
Epilogue
I have a friend who did a detailed analysis of how much time during his day was spent on unplanned activities. plan for the unexpected. set aside some time for unplanned activities. He was shocked. Here’s one that is at least as good as anything else you will find. but always plan for the unexpected. So. They happen and you can’t stop them. Now he plans for it. Only you know how much time to assign based on your experience. Yet he had not scheduled any such time.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
someone to listen and perhaps make some suggestions—another 25 minutes. And there a lot of people out there who can suggest a way to effectively schedule your daily work.
Assignment
Every day. One of your work teams experiences a delay in a project and you have to step in to help make a series of new decisions— 40 minutes gone.

The best tool is an electronic calendar. This process has five easy steps. Create a the night before so you are work schedule for tomorrow ready for each day when and stick to it. takes very little time. such as meetings. and allows you to be more efficient. but you can use a simple paper calendar if you don’t use a computer.
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. will saves you time. and so on. The main point is to plan your day. Block out things that will limit your productive work time. It doesn’t really matter what tool you use to do it. It will save you time in the long run and does not take a lot of time itself. Conduct your planning for each day Start tonight. This means knowing what meetings you have to block out. you arrive.
42
Scheduling: Step1
The first step is to clearly identify the time you have available.Quick Ideas 40 to 42 Keep a schedule for every workday.
Assignment
Epilogue
Use this five-step process. what outof-office events will take place that will keep you from working.
Assignment
Identify your time available.

too. or your daughter’s piano recital that evening. These personal things will be identified during your goal-planning session we discussed earlier in the book. such as the kids’ soccer match. to account for those things in your personal life. You have times you are not available. Block them out so you can plan effectively. Then block cess.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Remember. put this time in your calendar as available. The list must match that time on your calendar. so don’t forget them. the calendar. Identify your “must do” Don’t forget the To Do tasks and estimate the time List as a part of this prorequired for them.
43
Scheduling: Step 2
Now that you know what time is available each day. Block time to accomplish those tasks and list those first on your day’s Assignment To Do List. determine the priority tasks that must be accomplished that day for you to be able to declare the day a success. Once all these things are identified.
Epilogue
Don’t discount this step in the process. Then move to Step 2.
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.

44
Scheduling: Step 3
The third step is to plan for the regular houseAssignment keeping tasks you have to Mark your calendar for accomplish every day or those housekeeping tasks and every week. and every day will be a success. or that standard report task that you have to do every Friday.
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. make the day a success.Quick Ideas 42 to 44
Epilogue
These tasks are the important ones that. Often these will be recurring and you can put them in your calendar quite quickly. if accomplished.
Epilogue
These things take time. You know functions you know about so these things—those adthey always get done on time. ministrative tasks I wrote about earlier. but if you plan for them routinely. Do this for every day and in the time alloted. they will take the minimum time necessary and not be an afterthought that makes you stay a half hour late every day.

And none of this should have taken very much time at all.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Scheduling: Step 4
During Step 4 you block some of that contingency time we discussed in Idea #40. it’s not there emergencies. This might be time for reading. but you’ll be glad you accounted for the time later when they do happen.
46
Scheduling: Step 5
You are almost there. You’ll need it. you just move things around Assignment each day to reflect reality. Block some time now But if you don’t block this for contingencies and time initially. In using your schedule. They will not happen when you schedule them. but always put in some time every day for this. to move around and you end up working late.
45
Epilogue
Only you know how much based on your experience. Literally block time for such things. Now plan for some time for you to work on personal and professional goals. Again. Or time for
64
.

No time left? those personal and profesMake some! sional goals discussed earlier in this book.Quick Ideas 45 to 47 some research. And the only way to make that happen is to build in some time in your schedule for them. You should have at least a little time every day of your life for these activities. Or Assignment time for…well. you are planning no time for yourself. If you have NO time left for this. Or time for taking an online course. Don’t let this happen. They will
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. And before you know it. It’s based on just for you. How much time you have left for this kind of activity will depend on what you have accomplished in the first four steps. Because you’ll do that tomorrow.
47
Use an Electronic Calendar
One way to maximize your schedule is to put it in an electronic calendar. This is YOUR time to your schedule with some get better at being who you personal/professional time want to be. They are flexible and allow a wonderful level of detail. make some adjustments to your schedule. and don’t just write it off as not possible today. too. complete drift. finally. you get my Now. but it is just as important as the others. These applications are excellent tools when used correctly. Don’t forget this step.
Epilogue
This is Step 5. but it bears repeating here. And the next day. I’ve mentioned this before.

Find one you like and start using it to build your daily schedule.
48
Make the Electronic Calendar Work
If you choose to use an electronic calendar. They are neat. Remember that scheduling is a daily activity. Both are extremely useful and can be linked to your calendar. not as
66
. make certain you update it every day.
Epilogue
These applications also come with other very useful tools besides a calendar. including an electronic To Do List and an address book. and extremely useful. handy. this is the way to go. They include Microsoft Outlook and others that are all about equal. First. but they all have some capabilities that are the same. If you use a computer at your workplace.
Assignment
Look into an electronic calendar program for your computer.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
accomplish everything I have talked about so far in scheduling. clear. you need to understand how to make it work best for you in managing your time. Remember that contingency time? You will need to adjust that as it happens. but updating the calendar is an almost hourly activity. Each is a little different. EVERY day.

Then you have your calendar with you all the time. use the special functions in these programs. tools. I keep my calendar on my desktop as my primary screen when not working on something else. Don’t ignore this technology. use the tool. synchronize to so long as you remember to your PDA routinely. update it.
Epilogue
Electronic calendars and PDAs are extraordinarily useful in organizing your time. It’s really useful. Refer to it constantly. to it. Refer utes before. and use its they help. Third. Use that PDA as well. You can set the time for reminders—say. Most will let you have little pop-ups that come on the screen to remind you of activities. It just goes with the territory in the modern world of work. Contingencies rarely happen as you plan them. Use them. Second. 15 Assignment minutes before or 10 minUse the calendar. you are lucky!
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. Fourth. if you synchronize it with the comuse a PDA (which I recputer calendar.Quick Ideas 47 to 49 you originally scheduled it.
49
Attend Outside Meetings
We all have to attend outside meetings. If you don’t. ommend).

And it always hacked me off
50
68
. and be very time-expensive. or failed to build in time to prepare for a meeting and ended up burning the midnight oil to get ready. So they can meeting. Use the time while you are traveling to the meeting for other purposes. and that you have scheduled some preparation time to get ready for the meeting. Refer to Ideas 124–130 for some good ideas on how to use travel time efficiently. the time to prepare. Make the most of these meetings when you have to attend. But also make certain that they are scheduled on your calendar. Don’t let this happen to you. the time to travel.
Minimize Interruptions: Set Office Hours
Remember when you were in college and those professors always limited meetings with them outside class time to a small set of office hours? I do. that you have scheduled travel time to get to the meeting location and back.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
But those outside meetings take time.
Assignment
Epilogue
Too many times I have watched friends and coworkers have to crisis manage their schedules because they forgot a meeting or forgot to plan travel time. Not just the meeting time itself. Plan the time for the and travel time. Plan outside meetings but also preparation time carefully.

I also put these times in my schedule. and you will reduce your interruptions during more productive times. And it’s at times when I’m doing administrative or low-priority work so the interruptions are not significant. I do. It was that they all had a hundred students or more every semester in their classes. I have a door. grading papers.
Epilogue
This will not be foolproof. Others will ignore them or forget. now that I understand what they were doing. they would never get any other work done (preparing for Assignment classes. So they tried to ternal visits and coordination. Those times are posted on my door. The boss won’t care about your office hours. It was not until after I graduated that I realized why they had to do that.
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.Quick Ideas 49 to 50 that they limited access to themselves. Now I control when my interruptions happen. If they just let them come by any old time. They were controlling their time. I set specific hours very day for people who work in the office to come by and see me. everyone knows about them. and Set office hours for inso forth). I’m lucky.) I also get people used to the idea. And you need to do that as well. (Yep. It was not that they didn’t like talking to students. But many will honor them. group all that into one set Then publish those hours so of times every semester.

get so we ramble all over the some information. misunderstandings. Identify exactly what information you want to convey or decision you need and jot it down in writing before making that call. unnecessary. leaving voice mails with each other. We When you make phone are not organized in our calls calls to trade information. writing memos to each other.
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. If you time your calls. Then follow your to talk about before they notes.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
The Second-Greatest Time-Killer
The second-greatest time-killer is communication—that is to say. you’ll find you often save half the time over previous such calls. And chatting on the teleAssignment phone is the single greatest time-killer of them all. You’ll also develop a reputation for efficiency by using this simple method. and dropped responsibilities. That leads to very inefficient telephone conversations fraught with confusion. and you’ll find that you are much more efficient at using the telephone. pick up the phone and punch the speed dial. Most people don’t you are to accomplish on the think through what they want call first. time-consuming communication. Stay on task and on topic. and so on. using your notes. We spend too much time talking with others. chaos. inefficient. If you do nothing else from these next several ideas. or get a topic using far too much decision. writing and sending e-mails to each other.
51
Epilogue
You’ll find an enormous time savings using this method. write down what time. think before you dial.

Just checkAssignment ing. Well. but collectively over the course of a day.Quick Ideas 51 to 52
Handle Voice Mail
Voice mail is a wonderful invention. What to do? A few ideas: Encourage people to come see you rather than leave voice mails—especially office colleagues. Steve. as detailed as they wish. And that’s the problem. Frank tion to buy some concenhas a cubicle four down trated work time. They do! You get messages about everything. Use your DND funcTo make it worse.)
52
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. from yours! How many times a day to you get these time-wasting voice mails? Individually they do not take much time to listen to. For example: “Hi. this is Frank Jones. My calendar shows 10 a. It’s a digital realm where everyone can leave a message as long or short as they wish.” Click. and on any subject they wish. Discourage long messages—encourage e-mail instead. they can use 15–20 minutes. Just wanted to check with you about our meeting tomorrow. (More on e-mail later. Tell people to e-mail you It’s on you calendar. that was useful. in the second floor conference room. too. Be efficient (ruthless!) in deleting them when you hear the basic message.m. instead of leaving voice So what was the point? mails.

Be encouraging.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Another tip: Most telephone systems have a “do not disturb” (DND) function that allows you to send all phone calls to voice mail. this is what we hear: “Hi. your name. this is Steve. but limiting. set your phone on DND. and your phone number. When you need concentrated time to get something done.” This message is license for someone to steal time from you in massive quantities. and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
53
Your Voice-Mail Message
Recording the right voice-mail message on your system is the key to controlling what you get in return. but it buys you an undisturbed time to get some work done. “A detailed message?” Why? They’ll take five minutes just telling you that they need to talk to you about something and give you all the gory details you already know! You can control your incoming messages by controlling what you ask people to do in your initial message. maybe he’ll just come down the hall and look in your door. Try something such as this:
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. All too often. Leave me a detailed message. You’ll pay for that later with a number of voice mails.
Epilogue
The next time Frank wants to leave you a silly voice-mail message. Sorry I missed your call.

Quick Ideas 52 to 54 “Hi, this is Steve. Sorry I missed your call. Briefly tell me the subject of your call, Change your outgoing your name, and your phone voice-mail message to reflect number, and I’ll get back to something that resembles you as soon as I can.” mine. Be encouraging, but Notice the differences? request brief messages with First is the key word: just a subject. briefly. It encourages a message, but a short one. The second is the word subject. It encourages not a long story with all the gory details, but a simple idea of the topic the person wants to address. Using this message has cut my voicemail message lengths in half! Yes, sometimes I still get people who leave a long one, but most honor what they hear. It works!

Assignment

Epilogue
You’ll find most of your messages will be shorter, more direct, and succinct, and you’ll save another amount of time you can use for other things.

54
Use Voice Mail as a Call-Screener
When you want to get some uninterrupted work time in, use your voice mail to screen calls, especially if you don’t want to use the “do not disturb” function for fear of missing something important.

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151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Set your voice mail to go to your speaker (if you Assignment have one) and keep workTry this method for a ing when a call comes in. week. If you can become Listen to the caller to idencomfortable with it, keep tify if it is someone you going. If not, go back to your should break concentration regular mode. Perhaps the for to answer, or just let him “do not disturb” function is or her finish the message better for you. and call him or her back later. This takes the ability to multitask a bit, as you keep working and listen at the same time. But even if you stop for just a minute to listen, if you choose not to take the call, you are right back to work on your project instead of involved in a long phone conversation that takes you away form work and steals more time from you. This doesn’t work for everyone. Some don’t have phone systems that will support this. Others can’t split their attention easily. But for those who can use this method, it’s another simple time-saver that allows you to be more efficient and effective.

Epilogue
You can save as much as 10 minutes a day using this method. That may not sound as though it’s very much, but 10 minutes a day, times five days a week is 50 minutes. That’s almost an hour a week saved!

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Quick Ideas 54 to 55

55
Use Caller ID Effectively
Here’s a real timesaver: caller ID. If your Assignment system supports caller ID, Program your phone use it. It will allow you to with all of the key people you save lots of time not ancommunicate with on a reguswering calls. lar basis. Yes, this takes some It’s really simple. Proinitial time, but it will allow gram all the phone numbers you great control later in deof the people you commutermining which calls you nicate with most into your take immediately and which phone. Then, as calls come you let go to voice mail and in, simply look to see who’s listen and respond to when it’s calling you. If it’s someone a better time for you. you can delay or put off until later, let the call go to voice mail. If not, take the call. Caller ID puts you in charge of your incoming calls and allows you to determine when you deal with them. Of course, it doesn’t work for any call from a number not programmed into your system, but then you can make a determination about taking that call or not.

Epilogue
Although not everyone has this capability, when you do, Caller ID puts you in charge of the phone, not the phone in charge of you!

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been there. where they all short deadline right now on spend far too much time on a project and need to get this kind of chatter and too going on it. that costs us time on phone calls. terrupt. anyway. and you Control your natural back to work more quickly.” calls you and goes into one I listen to people comof these personal updates. I just don’t know what it’s going to be like with him gone from the Assignment house….151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
56
Handle Inbound Phone Calls
One way to control your time better is handling your incoming phone calls more efficiently. Keep people who call you focused on the purpose of the call. Fred’s off to college this fall. how are you? How’s Sally? That’s good. but it gets the caller back on track. Steve. desire to chat. I’m on a phone calls. the The next time someone reason I called is…. Unfortunately.
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. “So. You enjoy that vacation. wonderful place. Here’s just half of a conversation: “Hey. Then. sorry to inenough time for their work. What can I do little time on the purpose of for you?” Yes. Yes. Where are you going? Yeah. pleasant and nice people. little abrupt. Why? Because we spend too much time talking about things that are not relevant to the purpose of the call in the first place. and are. I hear you guys are planning a vacation next month. plain about not having try this: “Frank. but let’s catch up at and then listen to their lunch some day.” And so on. it sounds a the call. Most of us want to be.

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. (pause) Yes. and make a couple up information waste time. My question is.Quick Ideas 56 to 57
Epilogue
Remember that. hold on. Control your own personal chatter and you’ll save time. Okay. although this buys you time. Yeah. Here’s an example: “Hey. how are you? Say. reThese pauses to look view it.
57
Handle Outbound Phone Calls
Calls you make can suffer from the same problems: the personal chatter. I think it’s the 22nd and 23rd. Frank. let me make sure. information in advance. of quick notes on what you Be prepared for your calls need to accomplish during by getting out all of your the call. I don’t know.” (pause) And it goes on this way for The next time you need many minutes as you have to make a coordination to look up information to phone call. who makes the arrangements for the meeting rooms? Oh. But they can also suffer from a lack of organization. I need to talk about this conference coming up in March. you still want those relationships. so make a point of catching up with the “chat” later over lunch. 22nd and 23rd. Let me see if I have Assignment that information. get out all your have the conversation. information ahead of time.

there is confusion or disagreement about what was decided. You will probably have a
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.
Epilogue
You will be amazed at the time savings you get during these coordinating phone calls when you start them with some organization. the project paperwork. important. you would do that for a personal meeting—so why not a phone meeting?
58
Keep Written Records of Phone Calls
Keeping written records of your phone calls doesn’t sound as if it will save any time. Write neatly and and/or what information clearly. How many times have you had a telephone conversation one day and then a few days later no one can remember what was decided? Or worse. All of this confusion and disagreement will cause a Assignment great deal of time and personal angst to overcome Keep a tablet or small and correct—more time notepad at hand for recordthan just jotting down a few ing decisions and information notes after every phone call passed during telephone conto record what was decided versations. does it? Yet it will. Then file it with It really is quite simple. but brevity is also was passed. Organization with a couple of notes will save enormous amounts of time for both of you. After all.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
organizing it. and knowing what you want to ask and what you expect from the other party.

and write down on a piece of paper. When they do. Just complete your phone call. He supervises about 10 people and really knows his job. I also suggested that it took him twice as much time to write memos to his employees as it did to just tell them verbally. Then just file it. It will save you the same. In fact. Frank will send a memo to a single person that is only two sentences long! I once asked Frank why he did that.
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. I suggested that he might be more effective if he had more personal conversations. perhaps just a memo pad. what was decided and what information was exchanged. But he likes to send memos! Lots and lots of memos. Handwritten is fine.
59
Speaking Is Faster Than Writing Memos
Frank is a fairly typical office manager.
Epilogue
I can’t tell you how many times having a brief memo to myself about what happened during a telephone conversation has “saved my bacon” and saved me lots of time and trouble. you’ll have your written record of what actually occurred.Quick Ideas 57 to 59 file or a record of each project or task you are working on. You’ll save time and save trouble later. He said that he thought it was more appropriate and formal and that it was the right way a manager should communicate with people. It will be there when others in the call have forgotten or remember the conversation differently.

we feel as if. so it can’t be too timely.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
He suggested that I was wrong about the time (he actually said it a little more strongly than that!) and challenged me on it. second week.
Epilogue
If you want a free steak dinner. It also track the time it took to increases your personal interjust verbally tell them the actions with employees. all too often. Guess what? I didn’t have to buy that steak dinner! He agreed he took about half the time to inform employees verbally than it took him to write the memos. don’t write. He took the bet. And it gets delivered to you the same way. Why? It just spent two or three days getting to us. If it turned out I was wrong and he saved no time. don’t bet me on what takes longer—writing or telling. However.
60
Handle Your Paper Mail
The mail comes into most organizations once or twice a day. I would buy him dinner at the best steak place in town. I bet him to track the time he took during one week Assignment to write memos to his employees—and then Tell. once that mail has arrived. we have to handle it.
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.

It’s a nice way to end the day. But it does NOT have to be when it arrives. Take control of it—don’t let it control you. you can set aside scheduled time the next day to handle them. even if it breaks into something else we are doing. Don’t let the timing of the mail delivery dictate your life and work habits. if there are things that have to be taken care of in the mail. It has provided a significant tool in our communication arsenal. so just establish a time every day when you open and read or process it. create a routine for handling the mail. Better yet. But it can also be a huge time-consumer!
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. and. When it arrives let it sit there until you have time to deal with it.
Assignment
Leave the mail until the end of the day when all of your tasks for the day are complete—or as complete as you can make them for that day.
61
Handle Your E-mail: When
E-mail is a wonderful thing. causing disruption to our work and costing time. the mail doesn’t interrupt your workday. You know when it comes in every day.Quick Ideas 59 to 61 Yet we almost always want to open and read the mail as soon as it arrives.
Epilogue
Don’t let the mail’s arrival disrupt and dictate your schedule. That way.

2. One way to control the flow of e-mail is to control when you look at it. allow you to control how often the program goes out and gets new e-mail messages. There are these things. Instead of every 15 minutes. not just a few at a time. Set the application to check for new e-mail at a longer frequency. Deal with e-mails in batches. 3. set it for 30 minutes.
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. Most e-mail applications. or even more. Use the Help pops up over any applicafunction in your application tion you are working in and if you don’t know how to do will distract you. three things you can do: 1. Assignment Control this interruption.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
We all tend to receive far too much e-mail.
Epilogue
Although this will not save major chunks of time. Disable the message function so it does not interrupt you. because it will interAdopt one or all of these rupt you! The message suggestions. you could save a significant portion of your workday. including Microsoft Outlook. or 45 minutes. Combined with a few other of these ideas. reducing the distractions could easily save you five to 10 minutes a day. It also allows you to set an alert to pop up on your monitor screen when new messages arrive.

”
Epilogue
As with most of these ideas. direct e-mail messages. you should be writing that kind of communication. One way to save time is to understand that e-mail is an informal communication method. Long messages are not as effective as short ones. this one will not save massive amounts of time. It is significantly more e-mail messages. If they do. And they take more time. But combined with others about handling e-mail. not an e-mail. it could easily save you 30 minutes a day!
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. Write short. They should not read the way letters or complete memos do. Make a effective and far more note and post it on your moniefficient. tor to remind you that “shorter is better. Try to encourage others with whom you communiAssignment cate to write succinctly as Practice writing shorter well.Quick Ideas 61 to 62
62
Handle Your E-mail: Brevity
Many of us write e-mail messages constantly all day long.

or by department. Determine your best filing system.
Epilogue
It takes a little extra time to set up. or by project or…you get the drift. You’ll be very happy about having it the next time you have to find a message someone sent you. and then tions allow you to do this.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
63
Handle Your E-mail: Files
I can’t tell you how many times I have consulted with people and discovered that their e-mail in-box has 900 or more messages in it! They can’t find anything. Then. Establish it. Decide what filing system The best way to man(labels) will work best for age e-mail messages that you and then establish a set you need to keep for any of files for your incoming reason is to set up files for (and perhaps sent) mesthem. Create folders for them in your in-box and then. Even when they search or sort. when you need to find it again. use it routinely.
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. All e-mail applicasages. it’s a timeAssignment consuming process. it’s in the obvious folder and you’ll be able to find it quickly. simply drag it into the folder and drop it there. but once it’s established it is easy to use in this “drag and drop” world. You can do the same for sent messages if you want. once you have read or responded to one. perhaps by person.

tell work administrator about your e-mail application to adding it as soon as possible.
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. make certain you have an anti-virus application running on your computer. out known spam. folder.
Epilogue
You’ll spend a little time arranging all of these suggestions. identify any further messages Then always identify junk from that e-mail address as mail so your applications can spam and automatically put it screen those message out in a spam or junk e-mail routinely. Second. But there are ways to comAssignment bat this nuisance. Far too much of our inbound e-mail is spam or spoof or other ways to get to us with marketing messages. up to half of their messages are junk mail. If you don’t already First. but it will be worth it.Quick Ideas 63 to 64
64
Handle Your E-mail: Fight Spam
Spam has become the bane of our electronic existence these days. add one or talk to your netwhen you identify spam. You could save another five to 10 minutes a day by not having to review and delete the unwanted e-mails you receive. For some. make certain have an anti-virus program your network administrator (such as Norton or McAfee) has a system for screening running on your machine. Most have spam protection and elimination functions you can use to help eliminate such unwanted messages. Finally.

151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
65
E-mail: Discourage the Jokers
You’ve all seen this. but to stop sending them as a daily routine. I simply e-mailed all Identify everyone who my friends and asked them routinely sends you this kind not to send these messages of e-mail and ask them to to me. and to make it more friendly. I lost no friends or colleagues. Because I was polite and passed on the blame. I asked them to reduce it to only the absosend anything appropriate lutely remarkable stuff. They are always enjoyable. I always had to read them. was truly remarkable. There was a point I was receiving five or 10 of these a day from various friends and co-workers. The friend or colleague who constantly sends you the “joke of the day” or some great cartoons. These messages stopped. but they also eat into the time available for getting things done. The to business or anything that really good stuff. of course. And I saved a bunch of time every day. And. but it usually ate up 15–30 minutes every day! I finally decided a little “tough love” was Assignment needed—for myself. or the latest urban legend story that usually turns out to be fiction. As an excuse. Fun. And I still get the really good ones!
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. I told them my network administrator had asked everyone to reduce the amount of message traffic on our e-mail server.

Adare most current or active. Then I hit on the easy solution: Simply put the most used files—the ones where I receive and send most messages—at the top of the list.
66
Epilogue
Just this small action saves me a minute every time I check my e-mail. but that is a relatively simple thing to do. A little here and a little there adds up!
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. I occathat the most used are at the sionally need to adjust them top of your list and the least based on which projects used are at the bottom.” Of course. I discovered I had quite a few.Quick Ideas 65 to 66
Epilogue
I saved at least 15 minutes every workday with this method. That made it quick and easy to file most of my Assignment messages via “drag and Organize your folders so drop. You will. too. That’s an hour and 15 minutes every week I got back from a very small investment. Running through the list started to be time-consuming. I figure I’m saving about 10 minutes every day just with good file organization.
E-mail: Organize Your Folders
After I set up folders for my in-box and sent files in Outlook (my e-mail application). Because I do that about 10 times at day. You’ll do the same. just as things change.

” “New information on Widget Project.
Epilogue
The basic time-saver here is quickness of responses that allows you to be more efficient in your projects and tasks.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
67
E-mail: Write Clear and Direct Subject Lines
So what does writing clear subject lines have to Assignment do with saving time? Concentrate on writing You’d be surprised how active and clear subject lines effective a well-written to your e-mail messages.
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. And the quicker you and things that are important get responses. the more will move faster.” and “Answer to your Widget questions” are much more revealing and will get you quicker responses or actions when you need them. More efficient = less time. efficient you can be. This helps keep your actions from being quite so fragmented. you’ll all save time mails. subject line will shorten Encourage others to do so response times to your eas well. Subject lines such as “Widget Project Decision Needed. How many times do you get e-mails with the subject: Widget (or other) Project? What’s in the e-mail? Does it require action? Is it just for information? Are you a primary recipient or just copied on it? You don’t know from such a general subject line.

You might program or application you even want to discover the are using? You can copy keyboard shortcuts for copy data or text from a spreadand paste to make it even sheet program and paste it faster. One of the very best is also one of the most simple: copy and paste. right into a word processing document. remember not to copy and use copyrighted materials from a Website without the Website owner’s permission. Don’t ever retype anything you have in electronic form anymore. They have provided us with many time-saving tools. A note of caution: always double-check your copied text for any missing punctuation you might have skipped. You can also copy from Websites and your e-mails right into word processing documents. you can copy text from one document and paste it Assignment right into another. Check the various programs you use for instrucDid you know that you tions (use Help) on how to can do that no matter what copy and paste. Just copy and paste. Okay.
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. If you already did not know this. However. you knew that. And I have learned it saves an enormous amount of time. I don’t retype anything anymore.
Epilogue
I love copy and paste.Quick Ideas 67 to 68
68
Copy and Paste Are Two of Your Best Friends
Modern computers are wonderful.

sits down in your guest chair uninvited. If to the reason for his visit: some personal time is approthe Widget Project. then okay. your cubicle!). finally gets scheduled office visits. just stand up as soon as he comes in the office. Savings: five to seven minutes every time it happens.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
69
Handle Office Visits
Frank comes into your office (okay. If he doesn’t sit down. How many times does this happen in a week? How much time do you lose with these encounters? How do you keep this from happening? It’s so simple you’ll kick yourself. priate to maintain the relationship. and Learn to stand up if you then. Assignment repeats an office rumor about one of the VPs.
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. “Hey. after five to 10 minwant to shorten these unutes of banter. Yep. he (and most people) will not choose to sit down in your office. Seeing you standing. but do so He’s just killed 10 minselectively. Frank. utes of your day. Just stand up. and asks how you are doing. stand up and you take charge of the conversation.
Epilogue
Want to improve that? Instead of letting Frank talk first. How are you?” (Don’t wait for an answer!) “What can I do for you?” That will get him on topic right away. He then engages you in personal conversation about your daughter’s school recital and his son’s baseball game last night. he probably will not be as comfortable and will skip the banter and get to the point.

and so forth. It’s pretty simple. client information. Computers did NOT do away with paper. and I system that puts your immemean everything. To and documents in storage. The third contains reference files for office information. is in the diate needs at hand.
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. The desk files are lean and Assignment mean! Create your own filing Everything else. Everything else is in my desk drawer or in a file cabinet in a hanging file system I organized to suit my needs (not some office manager’s system!). and one adopted by many: I have three “racks” on my desk for file folders. One contains projects that are long-term and that I work with occasionally. I move documents to the drawer. The stuff on my desk is current and things I’m working on. The solution: Create an organization that works for you— your solution. Where does it all come from.Quick Ideas 69 to 70
70
Handle Paper Files
All that paperwork. As folders on my desk get too big. anyway? Is it in stacks on your desk? Piles on the floor? Organized in files in your desk? Can you easily find what you need quickly? I find that most people can’t. Supporting information goes in the desk drawer in hanging file folders marked with the project name—nothing more. One rack holds projects I’m working on now that are hot. and your cabinet organized the same less-immediate information way: by project name. Here’s mine. aid in organization I just use an alphabetical order. And they lose time and efficiency finding the things they need.

one for those I found Assignment I never read (the “kill” Cull out those publicastack). We all do.
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Magazines: Cull and Kill
You have to get them. so where do they go? Do you have something similar? Here’s what I did. who knows why we get them. Magazines. It was astounding! I was getting more than 25 different monthly publications. Did I read all of them? Of course not. A couple of years ago I did an inventory of all the magazines and professional publications I was getting. I went through each one carefully. keep up with the market. including at least two issues of each publication.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
You can keep just what you need right at hand for immediate retrieval quite easily if you are disciplined about it. But some—well. So why did I constantly junk up my office with these things? We don’t have a waiting room the way physicians and dentists do. Keep up with the industry. keep up with the community. I immediately cancelled subscriptions to those I never read. separating into three piles: one for those I read consistently.
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. and one for those I tions you don’t need or read occasionally read someand “kill” them. I made some critical choices. thing from.

I suggested the idea to a number of colleagues in other businesses. After a while. That reduced my reading time significantly. but don’t need to read yourself and try this techright away: magazines. up for a few days. They all complained of the same problem and applied my solution. You that to a week. and so forth. and it has saved them time. perhaps
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.
72
Use a “Reading File”
Once you have decided what to keep and what to get rid of. Find out decide. when do you read it? When do you read all that other office information that comes in on a daily basis? If you try to consume all that information as it comes in. you end up fragmenting your day and losing time to inefficiency. This Assignment is a file folder full of reading material you want to get Set up a Reading File for to. Let that file build what works best for you. Instead. I ended up “killing” about half of those as well. First try every few reports. administrative days and then try to extend memos. I kept them but monitored the occasional stack. consider creating a Reading File.
Epilogue
As I thought about this.Quick Ideas 70 to 72 For the other two categories. nique.

There are lots of them out there. It allows you not only to create a name/address/telephone list. This saves you having to look up all
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. My own preference is a nice weekend read on the patio with a cool one by my side!
Epilogue
You will save time here by concentrating this reading at one time rather that having it fragment your worktime throughout the day or week. office visits. though). and it also lets you record phone calls. or they take the file home on a weeknight or weekend. Many I’ve talked to over the years say the best time to do that is either early in the morning. once a week. decisions made. you probably have Outlook. This saves time finding things because it’s electronic.
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Create a Contact List
Make your computer work more effectively for you by using an application that allows you to create an electronic contact list. and so on. If you use Microsoft Office.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
a week. Then carve out some dedicated time to run through that information. so you have that information available every time you call or visit that person. at the end of a day (not Friday. You can use most of them as well to record contacts with the person. but to add personal things such as birthdays and e-mail addresses.

No looking anything up in some handwritten list or looking in directories. very easily and quickly without fuss or muss. easy to keep up to date. Again.
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Use a PDA
You already know what a PDA is—a personal data assistant. But do you use one? Resisting that technology? Why? These things are great for having information right at your fingertips. easy to use.Quick Ideas 72 to 74 that information in notes in some misplaced file folder Assignment somewhere. They are small. and you’ve saved a lot of time. and the annotation about his son’s aspiration to become a lawyer.
Epilogue
I also use it when I receive calls. How much time do I save? Probably only a few minutes every day. What can it do for you?
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. It’s a great relationship tool. note his wife’s name. I use one that allows me almost immediate access to phone numbers of people I call. though. I immediately pull up his entry and can see the notes from our last meeting. And because it’s digiCreate a digital contact tal. When someone calls me. a minute here and a minute there. you can update changes list you can keep current. and quite inexpensive these days.

they are current as long as you synch with your computer. of course. excellent use of time that’s Do you use a task list? otherwise non-productive. They really are quite simple. get a mobile phone that is also a PDA.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
It will keep your calendar for you. Check your PDA the office quickly and easily for Frank’s phone number. which is great for technophobic. It will maintain your Then start using it. and synchronize it with your computer Get one! If you are as well.
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. Not only do PDAs save you from having to manually keep a calendar or. I have entire contact list as well used one for years and find it (see Idea 73). too. I can you’re out of the office? No make calls when I’m out of sweat. And. worse. a manual telephone listing.
Assignment
Epilogue
This small item can save lots of time on the road and out of the office by helping you use downtime efficiently. I hope so! PDAs can handle those easily. while I’m driving (do so cauIt’s synched from your tiously and safely!) and make computer. Need to to be a great time-saver when make a phone call while I am out of the office. times out of the office. don’t worry. if you want the real gold standard of PDAs.

When they you take the leap. But he is undeterred and will jump at the next device as soon as it’s available. He is always looking for that new “time-saving” device.
Epilogue
Remember: The time you save WILL be your own.” If it’s new technology. Others require constant maintenance. Wait The idea that all new techuntil they are mainstream nology will save time and and have proven themselves money is simply proving as true time-savers before wrong. Some require such vast amounts of set-up expertise that help is required. But wait until they prove themselves. So let others discover what works and does not work. Assignment Beware of the “geeks Resist the impulse to get bearing gifts” syndrome. many others. do. never seem to live up to their promises of saving time. they rarely really save him any time. not all of them actually do that. Some do.
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. although they are always innovative and interesting. Unfortunately. Yet others. he’ll buy it. I have a colleague who is a classic “early adopter. Unfortunately. the newest and best. most of the time he is disappointed because. adopt them.Quick Ideas 74 to 75
75
Make It Really Save Time— Not Use More Time
All these new technologies we are seeing are touted to save us time in our lives.

is much easier to use. Even if you only save a few seconds on five routine actions. and they add speed will generally find they inand ease of use. you do them all the time. or are using a version of an application two or three genAssignment erations old. You ware. Each new version is more capable. Using old software really can cost you time. If you have to convert to other file modes.
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. But you cannot know until you investigate. investiadd capabilities to the softgate the new versions. If you are uscations do two things: they ing old applications.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Keep Software Current
One of the easiest and best ways to save time is to make sure your software is up to date. plication developers what they want. if they ARE routine. and reduces the time it takes to accomplish the more common functions. A few seconds multiplied by x times a day will add up. So. Upgrade as As users continue to tell apnecessary. developers find ways to give the user what he wants. Examine the software you use routinely to see if it Most updates to appliis out of date. it is ease of use that is the most common.
76
Epilogue
Not every upgrade is valuable as a time-saver. you are probably costing yourself time. save you time. are operating with an outdated operating system on your computer. It is this clude new ways to automate last item you should be esperoutine functions that will cially interested in obtaining.

and put Clean off anything that junks any others in appropriate it up and makes it difficult to file folders in My Docufind what you need.Quick Ideas 76 to 77
77
Keep Your E-desktop Clean
Jack is a colleague who does much of his work on his computer. He must lose five or six minutes every day just trying to find things that are right there in front of him!
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. Completely! All 21 inches of his monitor are chock full of icons for files—mostly data files. Keep your desktop clean. has worked on. What a waste of time. Putting icons on the desktop is for convenience and quick retrieval. not applications. on his desktop. will ever work on. or. He has a very large monitor—about 21 inches! Wish I had one that large. His computer desktop. on the desktop. Jack has to have everything he works on. not for common storage. Then you can find routinely clean it off every what you need quickly week. But no. apparently. Put application Assignment icons and any files you are working on right now Look over your desktop. And he can’t find a thing! I’ve seen him try to find a file he has just been working on for two minutes before he can locate the right icon on the desktop. Then ments. and easily. is completely filled. the electronic desktop where you can put icons for applications and routinely used files. But I am always astounded that Jack can actually find anything on his computer.
Epilogue
Don’t be like Jack.

151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
78
Establish a Clean Filing System
Keeping your computer files organized is just as important as having organized paper files. those I have folders or files that fit those categories. And so on. In the research folder I have sub-folders for various actions I have recorded or discovered and used for this book. and one for reyou’ll save time finding and search. whether on a PC or a Mac. If you want to find them fast and easily. agent. And a logical hierarchy of folders will make all the difference in ease and quickness of use. Into each of these you create individual folders for activities for that project. I laExamine your current beled it with the book filing system—or lack of name.
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. In the sections folder. and so on. reside in folders. I organize the ideas into nine different folders representing themes of the book. Then I created a one. Inside each of opening your computer files. you need a system. Computer files. The easiest way to do this is to create project folders. Reorganize your files in folder for business activia logical way so you can find ties with my publisher and things quickly and easily. You should do something similar for your files to make them easy to find and use. customers. tasks. one for sections in Maintain that system and the book. For example: I have a project folder for Assignment this book as I write it. clients. These are the main folders for major projects.

That’s 25 minutes a week—more than three hours in a month.Quick Ideas 78 to 79
Epilogue
You can easily save five or six minutes a day with a good. not slow and clunky. for optimum access to your most commonly used applications and files. The best way to make certain your computer is running as efficiently as possible is to routinely run (on PCs) a Assignment “scandisk” function and a Create a monthly sched“defragmentation” funcule to run scandisk and tion. use the Help function. But we can junk them up and slow them down. are very fast. These take a while old files such as temporary to run. If you have an old computer that runs slow. Today’s computers. so you may want to files.
79
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. even the inexpensive ones. Macintosh computer users should use the Disk Utility in the MAC OS and follow the links to First Aid and Repair Disk. They then cost us time. and defrag will reordo this over a weekend or ganize your hard disk drive overnight. Scandisk will clean up defrag. not save us time.
Make Certain Your Computer Is Operating at Speed
Computers are supposed to be fast. logical filing system. then it’s time for a new— and faster—computer. Most Mac users also use an application called DiskWarrior to manage the efficiency of their computers. If you can’t figure out how to run these applications (part of Windows).

so you may want to do this over a weekend or overnight. If not. hard drives become disorganized. Explore the best option Internet connection for a broadband connection speeds are extremely imporfrom two primary choices: tant—not just for e-mail and DSL and cable. connection (slightly slower) The old dial-up speeds of at a reasonable cost. Some could not imagine being without it! Yet it is less than 15 years old.” These take a while to run. poses. 56K are simply insufficient today. But it has become so important a communication mechanism that we really must get the Assignment most out of it today. that is the Websites for business purfastest and easiest. If you alattachments. but for visiting ready have cable. Websites today are your telephone company designed with the assumption can probably deliver a DSL of reasonable access speeds.
Make Certain Your Internet Connection Is at Speed
We all operate on the Internet these days.
Epilogue
After some months.
80
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. Just running defrag will improve the access time for your files and applications significantly.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Create a monthly schedule to run “scandisk” and “defrag.

Allowing a virus or worm into your computer today can easily put you out of business for days.
Assignment
If you have an antivirus program running.
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. Save time with broadband.
Epilogue
You can lose a lot of time waiting for things to happen on the Internet using a low-bandwidth (slow speed) connection. A high-speed (called broadband) connection is a must today. There are two primary sources: Norton Antivirus and McAfee Antivirus. Take advantage of the serious reduction in cost for these connections and save time as your downloads flash onto the screen in almost no time.Quick Ideas 79 to 81 Make sure you’re not sitting watching your monitor as Websites slowly load or e-mails with attachments to download. If not.
81
Virus Protection: Not an Option
There are plenty of insidious and nasty people out there waiting to corrupt your computer. get a new one fast. Talk about lost time! So install an antivirus program immediately. good. Make certain that your subscription is up to date.

You can find them both on the Internet and can even download them using e-commerce systems.
Epilogue
It’s not a matter of if your computer will be attacked by a virus. Operating a computer on the Internet without antivirus protection can be likened to driving a car without wearing a seatbelt.
More on PDAs
PDAs. These little numbers are highly portable and allow you to keep that task list you have already developed. Resive at the high end. They have become Assignment quite inexpensive at the low end. and extremely expenLook into PDAs. your address book. or personal data assistants. but even the inexpensive and take it with you when ones (I use the cheapest you travel. Take your tine basis (key point here) pick. even around available and it is invaluable) town. Keep it synched with cellular telephone and with your computer on a rouInternet access.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
They both are reasonably inexpensive for an annual subscription and will download the latest virus definitions so your computer remains constantly protected from worms and viruses. and your calendar in one very portable package. but when. and one can integrate the PDA adopt one. allow you great flexibility to
82
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. are becoming almost indispensable in the business world today. price them. where search them.

you do. and available using a cell phone. During that downtime when you are waiting for things to happen—on the road. Yes.
83
That Cell Phone!
Okay. Get firm orders. set appointments. and so on—you can be doing things. and make phone calls by looking up phone numbers. cerbusiness expense with your tainly. get one.Quick Ideas 81 to 83 do things while out of the office.
Epilogue
These things help you use time out of the office that otherwise would be lost to inefficiency. tact you. Probably the most useful item is the address book. you gotta have one. If it’s for business So watch what you do purposes. Make calls while out taxes. They allow you to do things out of the office and make Assignment it easy for people to conIf you don’t have one. it can be used as a with them. coordinate acmore from the time you have tions. Contimes out of the office. But does it rule your life? Cell phones are cheap (now) and extremely handy. I have my complete address book from my computer with me at all times so I can look up addresses on the road. Make use of it to allow of the office or on the way greater productivity during to another location. so on. Cell phones allow
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. Use them. waiting for the car to be serviced.

or ruin your concentration.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
you to maximize your time away from the office in ways we could not do before. either! Don’t take a call just because the phone rings. your cell phone.
84
Who Knows Your Cell Phone Number?
Do you give your cell phone number to everyone? If so. it can also take over your life. A very good business practice is to limit the Assignment people to whom you give your cell phone number to Review your contacts those who are most imporwho have your cell phone tant. They’ll call you at all hours. All phone services come with voice mail today. not the other way around. Control you give that number to so who has access to you via you control who calls you. at the most inconvenient times.
Epilogue
Although a cell phone will save you time and make you more efficient and reachable. That way. Don’t let it. But also don’t let the darn thing rule your life. you
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. Don’t let just anynumber. so let that call go to voice mail rather that allow it to interrupt a meeting or conversation. when the phone rings. Start limiting who body call you. you are giving them license to steal time from you. when you can least afford the time to take their calls.

not a right.Quick Ideas 83 to 85 know it’s someone important to you.” It was a fun TV show with some interesting lessons. You take control of that phone. Keep that number for people you want to hear from. Scotty” and “Set your phasers to stun. keep it there unless you are in a situation were a ring tone is needed. If you have
85
Assignment
Set your cell phone to vibrate or “stun.
Cell Phone: Set to Stun
Star Trek brought us “Beam me up.
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. we all experience times when we just wish Scotty could beam us up and away from a difficult situation. Don’t put your cell phone number on business cards or other materials that everyone has access to. let inbound calls go to your voice mail and ignore the vibration. Make having your cell phone number a privilege. If you are busy. Stay concentrated on the task at hand. Of course.” As a general rule. don’t give up control to others. But one of the best ways to control your time is to control when you answer your cell phone.
Epilogue
You can waste a lot of time on phone calls from people you really did not need to hear from at times when you needed to concentrate on other tasks. not your local hardware store telling you an order has arrived.

and maybe others as well. you can choose to answer ot not answer depending on your current situation.
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. you can ignore it. This way.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
it set to a loud ring tone or music. The easy answer is to set it to “stun” or vibrate. If you are in the middle of an important meeting.
86
To BlueTooth or Not to BlueTooth
So what is BlueTooth? It’s a wireless protocol that allows electronic equipment to communicate with each other. You see it every day with those people walking around with earpieces in one ear and who seem to be talking to themselves. When you ignore it. answer it. Phones that vibrate only boether the recipient. it goes to your voice mail and you can check that later—at a time much more convenient to you. and disruption costs time. not leaving that to my callers. it goes off and interrupts what you are doing.
Epilogue
Cell phones are wonderful and I’m a big fan. They are using a BlueTooth-enabled earpiece to link to their cell phone and can make or answer calls without their phone (it’s on their belt) and hands-free. ignore it. If you will be concentrating on an important task. If you are in the waiting room for a physician’s appointment. and they are much easier to ignore than a ring tone. But I want to be in charge of when I answer. You can disrupt your day easily by answering every call that comes in as it comes in.

Epilogue
Just remember that. take notes.Quick Ideas 85 to 87 BlueTooth-enabled cell phones are wonderful.
Assignment
If you do a lot of cell phone work. you need to be conscious of others around you in your conversations. They are on it all the time. use your computer. and so forth. although these devices are timesaving and handy. It runs in the background and I only get a notice when someone on my buddy list sends me a message. then a BlueTooth-enabled phone is for you. I use instant messaging with business colleagues when I’m at my desk for extended periods. look into a BlueToothenabled phone. If you do a lot of this kind of work. It can save you time by allowing you more freedom to do other things while talking on the phone. And many new cars are now BlueTooth-enabled as well. so you can run the phone through your car’s audio system handsfree (and thus safer).
87
Is Text Messaging for You?
Instant text messaging is the communications tool of teenagers today. But it can have excellent business applications as well. It may well save you time by allowing more freedom in your calls. and allow you to communicate clearly and efficiently with both hands free to drive. We can have
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.

But if you are not technically minded or not good at multitasking. I thought. You decide. others do.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
a quick and efficient conAssignment versation electronically right there at the computer. Examine instant mesAnd while he’s answering. Why have hundreds of printers when we can all share one large one down the hall?
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. At first. most are unique to their system. and they would use it. this makes sense. this communication tool will take more time than it saves. Both parties (or more if you want) need to be using the same system. It is really a time-saver for simple coordination and information-sharing tasks. AOL offers one. saging to see if you can get I’m working.
Epilogue
We use this routinely both in my office as well as with business partners out of the office. Windows offers best for you. Some also offer video messaging. Unfortunately. This is a very efficient Try one or two different sysand time-saving communitems and find out which is cation tool.
88
Get Your Own Printer!
Many of you are in cubicles or offices without a printer to print your written work. some efficiencies out of it. too. Discuss with this via Windows Messenworking partners to ensure ger. but most are also free. I have been in that situation many times.

but it also keeps the fragmentation of the day down so I can continue to concentrate on jobs. too. It’s a no-brainer!
Get Computer Training to Get More Efficient
If you really want to get the most out of that computer application. you have to learn more about it. One computer trainer I talked with told me that most people know how to use less than 25 percent of the capabilities of any software they use!
89
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. To your boss into an inexpenmy surprise. Many of us are self-taught. use the data to talk cost of laser printers. that occurred each time! If you. Assignment This did not include the impromptu conversations Do your own analysis.Quick Ideas 87 to 89 Then I did a study of how much time I used walking back and forth to the printer to get printed materials. I discovered sive laser printer. find this kind of Then I looked into the result. that an inexpensive laser printer can be had for less than $100! For the cost of a $100 printer (yes. I ran out immediately and bought one) I can save two hours of productive work time every month. and when we teach ourselves.
Epilogue
Not only does this save real time. not wandering the halls. we really learn only the basics. I examined this over a week’s time and discovered that I spent more than half an hour just walking down the hall and back.

we can be functional—but not expert. We can save time by ability with those programs gaining knowledge.
Epilogue
You will save time in the long run. Armed with some knowledge about a software. yes.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Many applications Assignment have many time-saving and work-saving functions. Yet if this software is important to us. time savings. Becoming expert will lead us to greater capabilities and more efficiencies and. It might lead to that next promotion. we should know everything about it. You may learn enough to do something no one else in the office can do. You’ll be more efficient and more capable. them. The and then attend some trainquestion is whether to learn ing programs designed to it ourselves or attend some enhance your abilities with training. Assess your them. My vote is to get some training.
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. But Identify the one or two most of us don’t know they programs you use the most exist. much less how to use in your work.

necessary in almost every business or organization of which I am aware.
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. So do we avoid them or try to make them efficient? Because they are needed. We MUST fix this. problem. lack of a coherent agenda.Quick Ideas 89 to 90
90
The Third-Greatest Time-Killer
The third-greatest time-killer is meetings. but the solution. You’ve been to meetings that could have lasted 15 minutes but went an hour because of disorganization. when it comes to Meetings are absolutely wasted time in meetings.
Epilogue
A recent research project conducted by the University of Iowa determined that as much as 50 percent of the time spent in meetings is wasted. let’s vow to make them more efficient and waste as little time as possible. Vow now to be part of So we avoid them. and many other Assignment reasons. That’s why we all hate them so much. not part of the can’t get away from them. people showing up late.

Use the ideas that follow to If no agenda has been improve your meeting skills. and good personal and small group communication skills. using agendas. Lead your work team to more efficient meetings by modeling good meeting preparation and behavior. And your meetings will gradually become more efficient and waste less and less time. Communicate your preparation to others and they will begin to follow your lead.
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. meetings you attend. ask for one. What does efficiency take? First it takes appropriate scheduling. You can help your organization Assignment gain efficiency during meetings by properly preparing Set a goal to become a yourself and demonstrating better meeting participant— that preparation at all the and more active participant. If the time is not limited by the agenda. advanced planning by all parties. And there are a number of things we can do to make them more efficient.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
91
They Can’t Be Avoided— But They CAN Be Efficient!
The basic problem with meetings is that they are horribly inefficient. That’s why they waste so much time. ask for that at the beginning of the meeting. provided. Read some materials on how effective meetings should be conducted.

more alert. They have been focused on other tasks. influence those who do to and better able to absorb better. decisions. Although this is counter-intuitive. or show up unprepared. First. If meetings take place during the busiest time of the workday.
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Meeting Timing—When Is Best?
Selecting the right time for meetings is the first step in more efficient meetings. If you don’t. show up late. the day has only just begun and people Assignment are not yet involved in their If you schedule meetdaily routines or problems.Quick Ideas 91 to 92
Epilogue
The only way to begin to eat away at that 50 percent efficiency rate at meetings is to start with yourself. try to the morning. more efficient times new information or make of the day. people are fresh in morning. that often depends on the organization. ings. make them for early Second. It is generally accepted that the beginning of the day is a good time for meetings. Others will follow. this timing allows for proper
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. we should not be surprised when people don’t show up. there are some excellent reasons. What time is the best time for meetings? Well. Third. but there are some general rules.

Meetings without time limits are license to steal time from the participants because they breed inefficiency. either the evening before or that morning just prior to the meeting.
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. Another good time is right after lunch. but after lunch people generally are refreshed from their work break and ready for new tasks.
93
Put a Time Limit on Meetings
Meetings should not be allowed to continue indefinitely.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
preparation for the meeting. Unfortunately. It is not as good as early morning.
Epilogue
Simply changing the time of meetings has been demonstrated to improve meeting efficiency and the quality of group outputs. and reluctant to get involved with something that might take them over their departure time. The worst time. They are most likely to remain detached and uninvolved in late-day or end-of-day meetings. is at the end of the day. trying to close out their work for the day. according to most experts. People are tired. and suggest time limits to meetings you attend. most meetings don’t have a time limit attached for the
Assignment
Assign time limits to meetings you set.

If you attend meetings that do not have a time limit. Or.Quick Ideas 92 to 94 group to get its work done. and allows the group to get work done in a reasonable time without wasting that time. an agenda is simply a list of the topics or tasks the group is to accomplish during the meeting created in some logical order. If you organize meetings. Either the meeting organizer or the group itself should always set a time limit for a meeting. suggest that to the organizer in advance. I have found that setting a time limit produces high productivity and efficiency. suggest that the group set one as the meeting starts. Those meetings also take less time than others I have attended without time limits. Every meeting should have a time limit. People are quite a bit more efficient when working against an established deadline. Everyone has a copy and can focus on those specific tasks.
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.
Epilogue
In meetings I have organized over the years.
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Have an Agenda for Meetings
The greatest enemy of any meeting is the lack of an agenda. What that limit is depends on how much work the group has to do and how long it could be reasonably expected to accomplish that work efficiently. try to accurately assess how much time should reasonably be taken to accomplish the tasks for the meeting and set a limit to allow the group to work to a deadline. so they tend to be inefficient and waste time. Of course.

but at the meeting stick to it.
Epilogue
A University of Iowa study. demonstrated that using an agenda has been shown to decrease meeting time by as much as 25 percent. One of the great timewasters in meetings is side discussions/conversations about things the group did not meet about. use of agendas for every Insist on agendas for meeting. AgenAssignment das keep everyone on the Use or encourage the topic(s) of the meeting. If you set up meetings. your meetings.
95
Use the Agenda—Time the Elements
One of the more advanced techniques for using an agenda is to set time limits on the various elements of the agenda. Allow others to have input to the agenda in advance.
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. amongst others. and the remainder of the group is simply wasting their time. It usually involves only a few people. Explain the strengths of an agenda to the meeting leader or facilitator. make certain you create an agenda and distribute it in advance.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
One of the distinct advantages of an agenda is that it keeps all participants on task and reduces time wasted from talking about things that are not on the agenda. Each action should have a fixed amount of time assigned to deal with that item.

the agenda.
Epilogue
The worst outcome of a meeting is when no decision is made on some items. it also keeps the group from Made sure that time limusing up its allotted time its are established for every without coming to the end item on the agenda. If you of the agenda and having make the agenda. action items that do not get If someone else makes up discussed or addressed.
96
Distribute the Agenda in Advance
This may sound as though I’m preaching to a choir that has the agenda message. and gets all the work done. The person running the meeting then has a responsibility to keep discussion on track and on time. Neither is a positive outcome.Quick Ideas 94 to 96 This keeps everyone Assignment focused and on task. suggest it to him This problem leads to muchor her. limits wasted time. If participants have
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. Assigning time limits on agenda items makes meetings efficient. Usually people are counting on those decisions. delayed action or groups going over their meeting time to get everything done. you do it. Whoever develops the agenda should identify a time limit for each item. but an agenda not delivered to participants in advance can be thought of the same way as giving students a test before the teacher covers the material. And.

151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
the agenda at least a couple of days in advance. If you lead small groups and group meetings. then you know how unproductive and long those meetings can go. This allows for tributed at least two days prior the maximization of time to the meeting.
Assignment
Epilogue
Again. When you usage and efficiency. get some training on how to do so efficiently. it also ask for an agenda in advance. allows for much more proPrompt the meeting owner to ductive and useful meetings.
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.
97
Train Yourself on Conducting Meetings
Are you called upon to lead meetings on a regular basis? If so. get something out early. don’t organize the meeting. they can prepare for issues or Make sure all your meetinformation items on the ings have an agenda that is disagenda. If you’ve been to meetings where the agenda was distributed for the first time at the beginning of the meeting. There are lots of sources. the University of Iowa study strongly suggests that distributing the agendas for meetings two days in advance can cut meeting times by as much as 25 percent. In addition. And most university programs don’t provide you with these skills. know that leading small groups is a learned skill. not something you just happen to be able to do because you can breathe air.

look into programs conducted by the local chamber of commerce. Research how you can Don’t try to do these get some additional training without the right skills. and better outcomes. Then take dynamics goes a long way advantage of that training to towards greater efficiency— increase your skill set. as my country cousin would say. or even Assignment get some coaching from a retired executive.
Epilogue
Remember: You weren’t born with these skills.Quick Ideas 96 to 98 Contact your HR office. either. or even your supervisor. but your group members also need training.
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. They are learned skills. local executive training programs by management training companies. your training office. you’ve got some training. No one has provided them with an education on how to participate in efficient and effective small group meetings. so get some learnin’. and you probably did not get them in school.
98
Train Participants and Staff on Efficient Meetings
Okay. If you run the show. A or education on leading small little training on small group group meetings.

Sometimes they are not decision-making meetings. or get trained yourself and provide that to your group. to allow your meeting groups or teams to learn how to better participate in small group meetings. the faster they will go. That’s a lot of time away from my primary tasks! I combat this time loss by reviewing the agendas in advance and determining if I really need to be at that meeting.
99
Attend Only the Meetings You Must
If you are like me. I’m on a lot of organizational committees and get invited to at least three group meetings a week. Get some coaching or training for your team.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
So either get some coaching for your meeting group. even a brief one.
Epilogue
Don’t be afraid to invest some time in saving some time. the better those meetings will go. you get invited to a lot of meetings.
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. The more they know about how to effectively participate in a small group meeting.
Assignment
Look into finding a coach or training opportunity. and the better the group outcomes will be. Ouch. but just information-sharing meetings where I know there will be a written record of the meeting later. Sometimes I discover that the group will be addressing topics I can’t help them with.

Quick Ideas 98 to 100 In these cases. office calls—the myriad opportunities during
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.
100
The Greatest Time-Killer
The single greatest killer of your time is other people stealing it! That’s right. not all meetings items. But make critical are needed or productive. each meeting. phone calls. Sometimes it’s based about which meetings you on your workload. As you probably altimes on the topic or other ready know. I also share with him or her any insights if I have any regarding any topics under discusAssignment sion.
Epilogue
That hour-and-a-half you spend in a useless meeting might just be the time you come up with the next Big Idea. but not use up your time on the others. e-mails. meetings. someattend. Visitors. There are just too many opportunities for other people to take time away from your day. I sometimes choose not to attend. I’m courteous to the meeting organizer and let him or her know. Make a knowDon’t be afraid to make ing decision about attensome critical judgments dance. meaningful ones. but I save my time and Be judgmental about stay on task. time-saving decisions about You want to be there for the what meetings you attend.

You could save hours a week!
101
Communicate Your Work Style
Each of us has a particular style of work. You seem powerless to control this loss of time. Some like to concentrate the first couple of hours each day without interruption. Don’t let others steal time from you. to your time by taking Not all. But you can. often. your time.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
any working day that people have to interact Assignment with you are all potential Decide to control access time-wasters. but charge of the human interall too many interactions action opportunities others are unproductive and waste have with you. When you do. you don’t even realize it. yet others are quite comfortable with interruptions throughout the day. And work for you. of course. You have to control your work environment and time.
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. you don’t know what you can do about it. a way that we find most comfortable and most effective for ourselves. The simplest way to do that is to control access to you. others like to control the late afternoon for concentrated productive work. Once you do. People steal all the following ideas will your time from you.
Epilogue
Take charge of your time and reduce or eliminate the number-one killer of your time.

grading papers. and then Remember that they set communicate that to others.
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. Work in any meetings be professors in college.Quick Ideas 100 to 102 The key is to decide Assignment what your best. writing papers. Decide your best system for productivity and then post an office schedule outside your door or cubicle. you must attend. He or she runs the show. other times they were simply not available—doing research. At ule outside your office.
102
Adjust to Your Boss
Let’s face it: the boss is in charge. A model might basis. So it is counterproductive to try to mold the boss to your work style or schedule.
Epilogue
You would be amazed at the time you can save by simply taking charge of your time. firm office hours they are Sometimes the best way is available each week to to simply post a daily schedmeet with students. Use that communication to help you control access to you. and so on. and thus your own productivity and time. The most efficient way to work with your boss is to adjust to him or her. most productive work schedule is. Determine your best and then communicate that work schedule on a daily to others.

No problem. you will just be less productive. The boss is the boss. I wait until we have a scheduled meeting. waste time. want no interaction outside meetings. fine—I do that. you will be more producmy style to theirs. That gave me great freedom to control my schedule. I always accommodated the boss’s style. Adjust. I Discover the boss’s have had many bosses over work style and adjust yours the years. fine.
Epilogue
If you try to fit the boss into your work style. If the boss likes information by memo.
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.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Find out how he or she likes to interact with people Assignment and adjust accordingly. and—in the end—lose. If he just wants everything communicated by walking into his office and telling him. If she likes information in meetings only. And there has been a wide variety in between. Some wanted to drop into my cubicle at any time with information or instructions or questions. It’s easier and more efficient to adjust to the boss than to fight a fight you will lose. You’ll find once you do ent styles. I write memos. with many differto it. Some tive and actually save time. I simply adjusted so. Fine.

Quick Ideas 102 to 103

103
Find a Mentor or Coach
Most of us move through life learning as we go. And we often learn the most from key people in our lives, both personally and professionally. My good friend Jerry Wilson, author of the first two books in this series, once told me that he learned most of what made him successful in life from one particular man he worked with on a regular basis for a number of years. Howard was his mentor. One of the best things you can do to help organize yourself in the office is to find a mentor (or coach, if you wish to use that word). Look for someone who knows the business, knows how to operate successfully, and is willing to work with you to help you be more productive, efficient, and effective. And use your time better. Find someone who is well respected, who you like and can work with Assignment well, and who is clearly Find your own mentor. successful. This person Take your time and find the does not necessarily need right person, and then meet to work in your organizawith him or her routinely to tion, but should be sometalk about problems, chalone you have ready access lenges, and so forth. He or to and can have a continushe can often show you ing relationship with. Then ways to use your time more let him or her share the efficiently. tools of success he or she has learned over the years.

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151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
Yes, wisdom often comes with age and experience. Borrow from that.

104
Control Interactions With Others
It’s in the little daily interactions with others that your time leaks away. Someone stops by the office to chat—five minutes lost; a colleague comes in unexpectedly to discuss a project problem—10 minutes lost; a subordinate drops by the office to ask you for some guidance on a problem he is working on—10 minutes lost; a friend from another department sticks his head in the door and asks about golf this Saturday—five minutes lost; and so on. Individually, these interruptions don’t seem too costly. But collectively, they can really add up to a major portion of your day. Just the few I mention in the previous paragraph added up to 30 minutes. If it was just 30 minutes a day, that’s 2.5 hours a week you lose to Assignment others. You need to control Control people’s access access to yourself to preto you and you will control vent some of this. Some the loss of time that seems access is necessary, but to leak away during the day some is not. For your suborto others. dinates, set standard office

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Quick Ideas 103 to 105 hours when you can be reached. For others, consider closing your door for long stretches to allow you to protect your time (if you have a door!). Sometimes just the organization of your office or cubicle can help.

Epilogue
Don’t be rude, don’t be unaccommodating, but do be protective of your time. After all, it is YOUR time.

105
The Geography of the Office
Believe it or not, how you organize your office can help you control access and control your time. Even if you have a cubicle and not a traditional office, how you arrange and use your workspace can help. Here are some tips:

Assignment
Take a look at how you have your office arranged. Using the tips here, make the changes you can to reduce “drop-ins.”

Face your primary workspace away from the door. That way, people coming by are not tempted to just “drop in.” When you want some concentrated time, close your door (if you have one) to discourage drop-ins.

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Post office hours outside your office or cubicle. I learned early on how to use my desk as a barrier. as a barrier.”
106
Desk Placement
Desks. Leave your door half open—or half closed. When I have been in situations where I actually had a desk.
Epilogue
Just some simple changes to the geography of your office can make a big difference in time saved by protecting you from those folks who just have to “drop by for a chat. In cubicles. It encourages people. can be used as barriers to casual conversation—and wasted time. I tried to arrange my workspace so that my back was to the entry. I always placed it between the door and me. That way someone who wanted to
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. Place a desk between you and the door. It was a barrier to visitors. With no chair guests aren’t tempted to sit and take up more time even when they do come by.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Don’t have a guest chair. and sometimes the modular furniture in cubicles. Never face towards the door or opening to your cube.

Move the desk or rearrange your cubicle workspaces to put your primary work area in such a way so that your back is to the entry or door.
107
Chair Placement
There are usually two or more chairs in workspaces. people are less likely to interrupt you. and looking busy. you will discourage casual visitors. If you look busy. I always make certain that my chair faces me away from the entry or door to the workspace. He or she had to knock or otherwise get my attention.Quick Ideas 105 to 107 interrupt me had to do something more than just stop by. With your back to the entry.
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. That way people have to physically interrupt me to get my attention. Any military person will tell you that you want to arrange the battleground to your advantage. I have always had the desire to have my chair and one for guests or visitors. I have found that both are potential weapons in protecting my time.
Assignment
Try to arrange your desk and workspace for maximum protection.
Epilogue
Think of your office or cubicle as your battleground.

It was out in the open Analyze your chair and inviting. I can control who stays by my personal invitation—or lack of one—to sit down. First. If someone comes in who really needs to talk with you. but I usually win the war!
Assignment
Epilogue
None of this is being rude.
108
Relationships to Windows
If you are fortunate to have a window in your office or cubicle.
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. Organize them to I have two guest chairs in your best advantage by my current office. it’s controlling your time. I usually make sure it’s an uncomfortable chair that people may sit in once. I put that placement and types of chair in an uninviting place. chairs.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
My guest chair used to be an invitation to steal my time. but both keeping your back to the are pushed right up against door and having a hard-tomy desk and require that a access guest chair that is visitor physically pull one uncomfortable. In addition. I may lose the first battle. Now. the problem. out to sit in one. Thus. you simply invite him or her to pull up a chair and chat. good for you. But a window can both cause problems and be an asset. People tend not to do that uninvited. but are reluctant to the second time.

…” His stories are very interesting. yourself in front of a bright congratulations.Quick Ideas 107 to 109 Windows can be a distracter. advantage. not disadvantage. They usually start with. Visitors tend to stay shorter periods when they have to squint to see you. face your primary workspace adjacent to the window. it’s easy to look and daydream. Now the asset. It’s still there for good.” You know the kind. you will be difficult to see in the office or cubicle and the light will be uncomfortable for the visitor. You’ve just killed five minutes! Instead.
Epilogue
If you don’t have a window. Use it to your window with no shades.
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. put If you have a window. and he does a great job of telling them.
109
Discourage “War Stories”
I have a colleague who tells wonderful “war stories. “I remember when…” or “That reminds me of a time. With the window behind you. If you Assignment want to discourage visitors from sticking around. but is not so easily distracting. Trapped inside on a beautiful spring day so evident outside your window. sorry about that. natural light. thinking about the coming weekend or what you’ll BBQ tonight on the grill.

I simply interrupt him as the story begins and tell him. his shortest story tends to be at least 10 minutes. not unkindly.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Unfortunately. what do I do? I discourage them as soon as he starts. and also make a mental note to revisit the story with that person. So. easwho want to drop in with ily! their “war stories. A couple of war stories every day and I’m out as much as 30 minutes a day! I can’t afford that kind of time loss. I then divert him with a question about that project. that I am on a deadline to get a project or paper done and really need to get on that. and long Divert or deflect those stories can go for 20.” Catch So although I love hearthem early and you’ll save a ing his war stories.
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. It maintains good relations with my colleague. to discourage him. I usually try to remember to ask about that story at lunch or late in the day when I am not quite as busy. I have lot of time each week.
Assignment
Epilogue
Remember not to be rude or impolite.

They will sit down. They’ll even begin to look around for a chair. And stay standing the entire time without inviting Assignment them to sit.
Epilogue
If this sounds rude. stand up immediately. and counted (counting the minI can now validate. Just stand and don’t invite them to sit unless you want to spend time with them. What the conLearn to stand and be sultant had discovered. But you don’t have to make it rude or unpleasant. When they come in. You’ll find they will get right to the point and leave expeditiously. they stay longer. It works! Great time-saver.Quick Ideas 109 to 110
110
Stand and Be Counted
A few years ago I learned from a consultant a sure-fire method to reduce office visits to a minimum amount of time. stand and and don’t sit down. If you make them stand. When people come into your office to have a conversation with you. Remain standing and don’t invite them to sit. When visitors come around if you are standing in unexpectedly. So don’t let them do that to you if you want to minimize their impact on your time. sometimes it feels that way. is that utes every day you will people don’t generally stick save).
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. stand. they perceive that be much more efficient with as an invitation to chat and your time.

a-week load. as do all too many of us. yet harder.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
111
Learn to Say No
I have a friend who is now in the 12-step “just say no” program. I told her to but learn to say no. has trouble saying the word no. She. She is required to say no at least once each day. So what happens? She ends up being the “go-to gal. I took her through an analysis of her tasks one day and we discovered she was doing enough work to fill a 60-hour week! And much of it had nothing to do with her job. Actually. The result? She’s overworked and tired all the time. As Say no to those extra tasks a result. and says she always seems to get work done right at the last moment of deadline. me her workload has deSay no to doing someone creased to about a 50-hourselse’s work. Be strategic. to those that do not fit. and she does. She’s to the tasks that are really beginning to learn to say no not yours to accomplish. So we began a rehab program.” Everyone knows she will always say yes.
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. keep working at it. it’s easier than that. Say no professional goals. She now evaluates all these requests for help and Assignment work to make certain they fit with her personal and Learn to say no. she recently told people ask you to take on.

Quick Ideas 111 to 112
Epilogue
Saying no is not limited to the workplace. such as coaching the soccer team or serving on a committee at your homeowners association. I sign those jobs to your staff have seen them incapable and supervise them. Then astitles. but it is a critical skill for managers Assignment and supervisors. Say no when they don’t. you will need to learn something that all managers must—or be condemned to a life of unnecessary toil: you must learn to delegate.
112
Learn to Delegate: Discover What Your Staff Can Handle
If you are a leader or manager.
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. Delegating tasks and Learn which jobs are work is the purview of superyours to do and which your visors and managers— staff can handle better and that’s why they have those more efficiently. All those extra things people ask for. is managers working far too many hours and their employees having little to do. should also be closely evaluated so that they match your personal goals. and the result the work yourself. don’t do of doing that. But all too often. Few schools teach anyone how to do this.

you must be
Assignment
Conduct a proper assessment of your team members to determine who is best at what.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
If you are in this situation. my life became much more in line with my expectations. you have to know what each of them is best at doing and where their weaknesses are.
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. Those are the ones you will value the most. Many will thank you for giving them work and tasks.
113
Learn to Delegate: Learn What Others Can Handle Better
As a supervisor. if you are one. Then boldly assign tasks and work accordingly. one of your primary responsibilities is to manage your people. learn to discern what you need to do personally. So. and what you should be assigning to people who work for you—your staff. when work comes in. one of the most difficult things for me to learn was to delegate work to others. This requires an accurate assessment of your people and their capabilities.
Epilogue
As a young manager. In doing so. But once I grasped that task.

114
Learn to Delegate: Train Your Staff to Handle
Of course. I have to do it myself. This requires a real awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of your team. and done well. you will find yourself doing the work yourself occasionally because the others on
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. Don’t just assume that if one member is weak at task A. If you do. and then a willingness to delegate work assignments to them. You’ll kill yourself doing it.Quick Ideas 112 to 114 in a position to delegate that work to someone on your team BEST suited to get that work done. Rely on the strengths of the members of your team and you’ll save yourself time in the long run.
Epilogue
Don’t find yourself in the “do it myself” mode. and it will cost an enormous amount of personal time. once you’ve done your assessment of your team members. you will find weaknesses. Don’t get into the old position of.” I have seen more overworked managers with that philosophy. that you should never assign that kind of work to him or her. “If I want the job done right. and they tend to burn themselves out quickly.

If you are not a procrastinator. and then you or someone else to train your team members on learn how to accomplish weaknesses so you can assign that work under supervitasks to them in the future. Instead. Then you end up with it and the under-trained employee goes home on time while you put in yet more overtime.
115
Recognize That Procrastination Is a Habit—Work to Break It
There are those who procrastinate and those who do not. It takes an investment of your time initially. idenHave him or her work with tify weaknesses. once you are aware of weaknesses.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
your team are fully engaged in work and can’t take on another task. assign it to someAssignment one on your team who has not done that work before. don’t read this section. work to overcome those in your team members. Assess your team. Train him or her. It may take a little extra time for you to do so the first time. it’s not for you.
Epilogue
Think of this as an investment. but it will pay off in time later as that employee learns how to accomplish that task. sion. but it pays off in time back to you later as they learn how to do the work.
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. When a task comes in and has a reasonable time deadline.

So. Then decide you are going to do something about it. First. Quite frankly. You are going to put the brakes on this habit. it costs us. pressure. and time working late to get done what should have been done much earlier. This costs you added stress.
Epilogue
Some studies of procrastination have shown that those tasks that are delayed by procrastination can cost up to twice as much time to accomplish as those that are not. As with any other addiction. It’s something we know in ourselves. Assignment Some of the ideas already presented in this book will Realize that if you are a help you both to recognize procrastinator. you continually put off work until the last minute possible. if you are a procrastinator. then here are some ideas that will help you. the first step is to admit you have a problem. you all know who you are.Quick Ideas 114 to 115 But if you are. The following ideas are sooner you recognize that some special thoughts on the sooner you can begin to procrastination and the time deal with the problem. it’s costing your habit and to overcome you a lot of time and that the it. this tendency to put things off. So the first step is to admit it to yourself by looking for those signs of putting things off until it’s almost too late. decide if you procrastinate.
141
.

To help. it’s different from a drug addiction or some other vice. You’ve taken the big step by acDo something about knowledging it’s a problem. your procrastination.
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. don’t put it off. Do it. Look. Wimpy!
Now that you realize that you have this problem. Deal with it. Start solving the problem. it’s time to step up and solve it. Do it Now start dealing with it. And the first thing a procrastinator wants to do is what? That’s right. but it IS stealing time from you and your family and causing unnecessary stress.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
116
Don’t Put It Off. put it off! Assignment Don’t do that. the ideas that follow will address some of the usual problems procrastinators have and provide you with strategies for dealing with them.
Epilogue
Recognizing it’s a problem will not fix the problem. today. Do it now.

Tell yourself you are required to follow the list and have to do the task. on your list. If you do that. If you don’t currently have one. one task the imposed discipline of the at a time. Do It
Elsewhere in this book I’ve written about To Do Lists. you have to work on projects and tasks in a priority order.
Epilogue
Psychologists tell us that sometimes people who procrastinate just need some external discipline to get them moving on a task. When you come to an item that you are tempted to put off until another time—no matter the Assignment reason—don’t.
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. do the task or project. That’s Follow it to the letter. The To Do List can serve as that external motivation. Nothing helps break the cycle of procrastination better that forcing yourself to live by a prioritized To Do List.Quick Ideas 116 to 117
117
If It’s on the To Do List. done. and discipline yourself to follow the rules of a To Do List. you’ll find that you don’t put things off. in order. make one. No skipping allowed! Use that list to provide the artificial structure and discipline to do every task. Work down your list. until they are all list. Let the list be your taskmaster. If you use it right. Follow the Use a To Do List and rules of the To Do List and make it your taskmaster. So do that.

yet still gets the job accomplished. That’s what being a supervisor is all about. that you are still responsible for that job getting done. you do have some options to delegate the work to someone else who works for you.
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. One way to manage it is to spread the elements of the job over a couple of people. and you will need a close awareness of the workloads of your staff. Then you just manage the job. any good supervisor has to realize that passing work to others could easily overload them. you delegate the work to others. and getting the job done. However. This can lighten your load and allow you more time. however.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
118
Commit to the Job—or Delegate It
When assigned a task or job. so make sure it’s still on your To Do List to check on. That you have the capability. delwas yours to begin with and egate part or all of the job to remains yours even when others.
Epilogue
Remember. If you are a supervisor. perhaps including yourself. sometimes we just don’t have the time to do it. there are other options. though. so caution is appropriate. For those who can. that delegating the work that was assigned to you Assignment does not mean you also delWhen you receive work egate the responsibility for that will overload you. Remember.

Or maybe the job really does belong to you or. In the final analysis. to no one and you just got selected. first find a motivation to do the job before you try to get out of it. Sometimes you may just have to find your own reason. “But that’s not my job!” Think before Assignment you do that. may be assigning that task Sometimes doing an unwanted to you because he trusts task leads to other benefits.
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. And you’re tempted to say. not someone else. In any event. and something you can use at your next job review. you more than the person who is supposed to be doing the job—a plus for you. Perhaps it’s that your boss has asked YOU. Man!”
This has happened to all of us at one time or another: The boss comes in and assigns a task clearly the purview of someone else. What can motivate you? Perhaps it’s avoiding the negative of not doing the job. The boss one decision or another. is it going to be more time-consuming to get out of the job than to just do the job yourself? Decide. Trying to get out of it might be more damaging than just getting it done.Quick Ideas 118 to 119
119
“It’s Not My Job. Critically assess these Think about this situasituations before jumping to tion for a minute. There can be lots of good reasons for taking on the task. Perhaps it’s because it’s a job you can do better that anyone else. if not.

this is a positive.
120
Beat the Fear of the Unknown
Sometimes we are afraid of some jobs or tasks. It Assignment means that you have carved out a niche that the Don’t allow your fears. And who says it’s going to be a failure anyway? If you change the fear to a positive attitude that you CAN do the job. But failing is not necessarily bad. It resulted in a promotion shortly thereafter. She was being tested—and she passed. to and you are the “go-to” keep you from success. Again. That specific task turned out to be a trial for her. you fear success.
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. If you think getting the job done well will then get you more such jobs. What are the reasons? Sometimes we are afraid of failing at a job that is new or risky. she went forward and did a masterful job of it. person. organization sees of value whatever they might be. We can learn from failure. the fear recedes. Sometimes we fear what will happen when we succeed.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
A friend found herself in a similar situation—that is. But after reflection. assigned a task outside her area.

It might mean doing some reading up on the subject. just do it. Quite frankly. Then get it Although this all might done. Or wasting valuable time. or Assignment interviewing a few people to become smarter about Take the job. it takes far
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. This is an easy fear to overcome. Sometimes that just means talking to someone who has done the work before. It’s that simple. you are using valuable time. I have never been in an organization that has punished people for getting work done.
121
Overcome the Insecurity of a Lack of Knowledge
You are uncertain about this job because you don’t have any experience or not enough knowledge about the subject to feel confident. Or losing valuable time. or doing some research.
Epilogue
Remember that all the while you are agonizing over this job. So don’t be afraid. Find a way to turn each of these opportunities into a positive and then get the task done. smart about it. take more time. Go out and get the knowledge you need. and get the subject.Quick Ideas 119 to 121 There are lots of other fears. but all of them can be defeated by a positive attitude.

we have ready access to all kinds of information and knowledge. You’ll just spin your wheels and go nowhere.
Epilogue
Never fear what you don’t know. Tough! there because you aren’t They need doing anyway.
122
If You Are Not Interested. of those tasks that you are the smellier it gets. It doesn’t appear important enough.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
less time than the time you will spend worrying about the job and dithering about it.
148
. You just need to go out and get it. It’s dull. because in the 21st century. If you think this way. continuing to waste time. It’s similar to If you get assigned one bad news: the older it gets. It’s boring. interested in it. not interested in—get interested! Motivate yourself. Get Interested
Okay. I have news for you: there are lots Assignment of jobs and tasks out there Don’t rationalize this that you will not have much task away and let it just sit interest in doing. you’re in trouble. sometimes the job just doesn’t excite you. You’re not really interest in it.

You’ll get in trouble if you don’t get it done. Do It and It Will Go Away
Here’s the easiest way to take care of this kind problem: if you really don’t like a task. Do the work. Of course. and spending wasted time on it.Quick Ideas 121 to 123 The tendency by procrastinators is to let these tasks just sit there. just do it and it will go away.
Epilogue
Interest is not required to get work done—just the motivation to make it happen. the fastest way to get rid of it is to get it done. Then someone asks again. thinking about it.
123
If You Don’t Like the Task. Then you get nervous. All the while you are letting it sit there. Yep. or don’t want to do it. you are worrying about it. You won’t get promoted if you don’t get it done.
149
. you’re not. Don’t let this happen to you. So they sit there and get old—and then older—and then someone asks about the task. Then your boss comes in to ask how that task is coming. And you worry about it all the time. Find a reason to get interested and quit procrastinating. Find some motivation and get the work done. The motivation can even be negative motivation. And what do you say? You’re working on it.

Unfortunately.
124
Schedule Travel Trips in Batches
Travel can be one of the most wasteful users of time we know. If you are traveling by car. both in and around town customer. if you Look at batching your need to visit with a client or trips. As they say at Nike: Just do it!
Assignment
The faster you get it done the sooner it will be out of the way and out of your life. and the pain stops with it. accountant’s office sometime that week. no more anxiety. and stop by your as well as long distance. we all have to do some of this. no more worry. try to build a schedule where you can put a couple (or more) of trips together into one travel segment. why not
150
. So it makes sense to make the best use of travel time as we can. Period.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
No more pain.
Epilogue
Think of it as hitting your head against a wall: it feels so good when you stop. All gone. This minimizes your out-of-office time and makes for more efficient use of your time. Assignment For example.

on average. time in hotels. I always conduct business travel with my notebook computer.Quick Ideas 123 to 125 schedule them back-to-back? That allows you to make the best use of time away from your office—one trip instead of two. Sometimes I decide it’s to learn more about a computer application. I saved. if you have to go long distance or are flying. Making just two stops during one trip instead of making two trips. do that same thing. When this can’t be avoided. and so forth). Now that’s time-saving!
125
Use Travel Time to Learn
We all have those longer trips where there is lots of “dead time” (time spent in airports. And I always make a point of setting out to master a new set of skills during the trip. Most people save lots of time on local travel by batching their trips. and I use help screens or tutorials. Of course. 45 minutes. Sometimes I take a CD with some training modules on it to absorb. Try to batch your visits into one trip instead of many small trips. time on airplanes. One of the best uses of this kind of time is to learn new skills.
Epilogue
I’ve tested this idea on more than one occasion. use the time wisely.
151
.

New capabilities or skills will save you time later. or any number of Internet things that add to my knowledge or abilities. You can and should be productive.
Assignment
Determine to use your “downtime” efficiently to learn new skills or gain knowledge.
126
Use Travel Time to Communicate
One of the easiest things to do while traveling is to talk to people. The modern cellular telephone allows us to keep in touch wherever we are.
Epilogue
The ideas that traveling is too hard and that you can’t be productive on the road are nonsense. so I will also do research on my destination. Be productive with this time. so why not use this time to make some contacts?
152
. my client or customer. Often. If not via a notebook computer. My notebook has “wi-fi” capability.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Other times I take reading materials that have backed up over the past couple of weeks. industry magazines back up on me so I take those on trips to get up to speed. the city I’m traveling to. take a professional book or magazines with you. even if it’s just to improve your capabilities.

call your appointment to confirm—or to tell him you are stuck behind an accident and might be a little late— call appointments for the Assignment next day to confirm.Quick Ideas 125 to 126 As you sit in that airport lounge waiting for that delayed flight. Call the office. Just remember to follow flight rules when on board an aircraft.
Epilogue
All this talking will save you time later when you have to make the same calls from the office. plan are lots of people you could some communication on the use this time to touch base way to and from. too.
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. with while driving. There are all types available today. and many are very inexpensive. If you are driving. Doing so is much safer than trying to hold that phone to your ear. There While traveling. You could be doing other things and get home on time that day. connect to the Internet and check and respond to e-mails so you are up to date when you return. call a couple of clients or customers. and I probably drive better. It works great. If you use a notebook computer with wi-fi capability. you can still do the same thing. touch base with your office. Again. Connect and make or maintain contacts with this downtime. I communicate better using it. and allows you to drive with both hands. I use one routinely that I got as a part of my last cellular contract. make use of this time and it One note of caution will save you time later. while driving: always use a hands-free device. or call a colleague and discuss the state of the industry.

it will save you time later as you arrive refreshed and better able to handle what comes your way at the other end. and refresh yourself so you will be better prepared both physically and mentally for the next meeting or event you are traveling to. and refreshed for and time allows it. I know. ing travel time. When this happens to me. but it is helping me recover Assignment from stress and allowing me to be better prepared. relax durthe coming event. unwind. take a good novel and immerse yourself in it for a few hours. Take a portable CD player or an iPod or MP3 player and listen to music.
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. it’s not getting anything done. Listen to your favorite music or talk show. If you are traveling by air. I often resolve to relax and unwind while traveling. rested. Relax.
Epilogue
Though this does not save you time immediately.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
127
Use Travel Time to Unwind
Sometimes you are traveling after a hard day’s or week’s work and face a stressful trip and more work at the other end. and listen to it while you drive. take a book tape or CD for your arrival event. Unwind and If you are traveling by de-stress. Be better prepared car. When you are stressed.

vanced reading into a folder to review while I’m traveling. Then that I will have time while read them in the airport and I travel. but I am also using my travel time to my best advantage.
Epilogue
This saves you time at the office and efficiently uses your travel time to your best advantage. When using air travel. so I put all my adon the plane. Sitting in airports and on airplanes is very conducive to reading Assignment and making notes. I do this all the time take all your preparation when traveling. I know materials with you.
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. which is most applicable to air travel. That way I’m using my office time efficiently.Quick Ideas 127 to 128
128
Use Travel Time to Prepare
One great use of travel time. is preparation for the upcoming event or meeting you are traveling to. This also has the advantage of allowing that information to be fresh for me when I arrive and need to use it.

Determine to use travel This is a great use of time to catch up. and hit the road. Assignment I simply fire up the notebook and go to work. When I get into these situations. If I need to do work on the computer. or even get time that otherwise would ahead. take notes—whatever. be unproductive.
Epilogue
This technique will save you time by allowing you fairly uninterrupted time to do work—either catching up or getting ahead. I can break open the files and read. While waiting in the airport. or while sitting on the plane. traveling usually provides some uninterrupted time to get caught up on things. write.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
129
Use Airplane Time to Catch Up
If you fall behind on tasks as I often do. This is especially true for air travel where there is a lot of time just sitting around. toss my notebook computer over my shoulder. I pack a couple of folders with materials I want to read or work on. on work.
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Don’t just sit there times I have for this kind looking out the window. the best caught up. so take it with you and use your travel time. no. it saves you time later. internal reports. Again. on the plane. and so forth? Well. All of these opportuniAssignment ties are times to get caught up on your professional Take your “catch-up reading. in the hotel. Not while you are driving the car. but when you are in an airport. or in a taxi on the way somewhere.Quick Ideas 129 to 130
130
Use Travel Time to Read
Remember all that reading you had to figure out when to do? Those trade magazines. reading” with you when you travel and use that time to get Quite frankly. of reading is when I’m on the road. research reports.
Epilogue
You know you need to read all that stuff and will be behind if you don’t. traveling is a great time to do all that reading.
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such as spending time at home with family. can plan for them. don’t forget your personal life as well. Your financial advisor is going to ask the same kinds of questions of you when it’s time to talk to one. how many kids you want and to what extent Assignment you want to support them When outlining your in college. and month. so start now. As you decide what goals you want to set for your professional life. After all. Include these so you can plan time to actually accomplish them. education.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
131
Set Personal and Family Goals
Your personal life should be a part of your time planning and management as well as your professional life. They have to be in your plan. or participating in your children’s activities at home and at school. clude personal and family spouse education. week.
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. Your objectives for each year should also include personal objectives. always inhome purchase.
Epilogue
If you don’t include this stuff. it is a major part of your day. and so goals and objectives so you forth. or vacation time. such as term objectives. and any goals long-range goals and shortrelating to yourself. Your longrange goals should include some personal goals as well—goals such as when you want to retire. you’ll never get to do it.

and you note that one of your goals was to be involved in your children’s lives—well.
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. they won’t happen. you can’t always accommodate something every day. So include them in all your daily planning. get these things done. You have outlined long-range Assignment goals and short-term objecEvery day ask yourself tives that involve you and the question: “Am I including your family. when you are looking over that work schedule for tomorrow and realize that you have a child’s piano recital that evening.
Epilogue
Of course. So.Quick Ideas 131 to 132
132
Make Certain You Leave Time for Personal Goals
Okay. you know what you need to do. The reason I recommend these be written down is so they can be reviewed routinely and then acted upon. Get that recital on your calendar for tomorrow! If you don’t plan for these things to happen. Now make ceranything today that helps me tain you include time every accomplish my personal or day and every week and family goals and objectives?” every month to actually accomplish those things. over time. but the process is to ask the question every day so that you do. good start.

How? The first tactic is to leave the office and have lunch every day away from your desk. Go have a brief chat with a colleague for five minutes. you diehards. It doesn’t have Another way is to to be a lot of time—indeed schedule some of that readit should probably not be a ing time every day.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
133
Schedule Downtime During the Day
All of you A personality types out there. Take a half hour and think Assignment about something other than work. to get that reading taken care of.
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. You come back to the work a little refreshed and ready for more. a long way to refreshing but one way is to simply alyour mind. perhaps in the afternoon. And you’ll be more effective and more efficient because of it. Studies have shown that the more you work without breaks. We’ve lot of time. It’s often relaxing and serves to de-stress you. but go outside (in good weather) and relax by the lake or outside of the office. you can still take your lunch in a brown bag. Even a little time away from the “grindstone” will help you come back refreshed and ready for more. locate a half hour every day. Okay. So learn from the research and plan for some downtime during every day. the less effective and efficient you are. Schedule downtime every day. But a little addressed how to handle all break from the work goes that reading you have to do. listen up! You will burn yourself out if you don’t relax a little. Take a couple of breaks during the day.

But more often.
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.
134
Take Brief Breaks
Another thing to do to refresh yourself is to take brief breaks throughout the day.Quick Ideas 133 to 134
Epilogue
The research is quite clear: We are refreshed even with small breaks in the work schedule. cup of joe in the morning (my favorite)? Or go visit a friend in another office for five minutes to talk about the kids. Sometimes these just happen naturally. and we are also more efficient when we return to the tasks at hand. How about a quick walk to Not long. or plan them. Or—well. Another thing to do is take a five-minute break every couple of hours. perhaps five minthe soda machine for your utes or so. Almost anything favorite soda? Or a trip to not specifically related to the coffee pot for another your work will do. Make yourself take brief What kind of breaks? breaks throughout the day. you get the drift. Or just sit at your desk and surf the net for your next vacation spot for five minutes. such as when you drive 10 minutes to get to an appointment or walk to the next building on campus to meet someone. not those 20-minute smoke breaks others take. you have to make these opporAssignment tunities. No.

151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
These breaks serve to refresh you and serve as great mental transition devices to move to the next project. longer by exception. But she is likely to burn herself out early in life.” Don’t let this happen Target your workday to to you. In addition to burnout. not as a using the techniques from rule. And none of this activity is for herself. Working an eighteight to 10 hours. she’s a classic workaholic. Only work to 10-hour day efficiently. That’s 16–18 hours she’s is engaged fully every day. studies of employees who work those kinds of hours routinely indicate that the last few hours are very unproductive. She spends 12–14 hours every day at work.
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. Stay on your A Game. To her credit. then invests another four hours at home or with family activities. Don’t let this happen to you. Yep. It’s because people are tired and not on their “A Assignment Game. she knows this about herself and is working to overcome this problem. this book. She’s overworking herself.
135
Don’t Overwork Yourself
I have a friend who I expect to lose early in her life. should be plenty to get the job done. They also show that’s when mistakes are made.

wait until the last minute to make that appointment. Then they are fully minute. planned events you can The problem with all schedule around effectively too many people is that they without fragmenting your day. As we Plan for doctor and denget older. perhaps it’s more tist appointments at least two often. by the time they finally call. Then they are trying to sandwich in an appointment to an already-busy day and. only a few appointment times are available.
136
Schedule Medical and Dental Visits Well in Advance
Here’s a good timesaving tip. We all have to see doctors and dentists on Assignment some regular basis.Quick Ideas 134 to 136
Epilogue
It’s really hard to watch these people burn themselves out. And also to know they will probably have to rework all the tasks they handled during the last few hours of working because they were not at their best. These activities can weeks in advance. Get them be scheduled and should scheduled and on your calennever be left until the last dar.
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and I’m done and out of there and to work nearly on time. For example. I’m first and not delayed. my family doctor starts appointments at 7 a. as many appointments later in the day can be.
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137
Schedule Medical and Dental Visits for Early Morning
A great trick with these appointments is to set them in advance and for first thing in the morning. So plan for these events well in advance and schedule when it is most advantageous to you. Mission accomplished.
Epilogue
Sorry. not fit in between other activities. but yes: you have to see the dentist at least a couple times a year. That way.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
This increases stress and complicates—and fragments— the workday. and no impact on my work. So plan ahead so it doesn’t screw up your schedule and make the day even more difficult. I always schedule myself for appointments with him for that time by scheduling in advance.m.

138
Grocery Trips: Buy Bulk
In this quick shop culture. you are fragmenting your day. Nonetheless. although she doesn’t start until 8 a.m. and I make certain that these appointments don’t fragment my day by being in the middle of the morning or afternoon. I’ll try to make this point clear. unplanned task. you are fragmenting your day’s work. this idea may be a lead balloon. So. I’m minimizing my time away from the office. every time you have to run to the store for a carton of milk. go to the appointment. Every time you have to run to the supply closet for more paper for the printer. or try to find a new printer cartridge.
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. you fragment your day and cause inefficiency.
Assignment
Schedule your medical and dental appointments at the beginning of the day or the end of the day.Quick Ideas 136 to 138 I schedule my dentist the same way. Still.
Epilogue
The key here is to keep from fragmenting your day with these appointments. or an ingredient for a baking project. and then start up work again. Every time you break into your day for a simple. You don’t want to have to stop work.

and prepare Don’t end up having to for your projects. Stock the pantry. then you are likely wasting time. One area for you to look is your closet. If you are taking time finding the right clothing every morning. This just the get something.
139
Organize the Closet
Sometimes the time we spend getting ready to do things at home costs us time it should not. Don’t get make multiple trips to the into a situation where you store every week just for are constantly running out one or two items. the place where we hang and store clothes. go buy something. buy bulk. Yes. Have your supplies on hand. worse. That’s more than an hour and a half each month you’ve wasted searching for your clothes. Yep. but five minutes times five days times four weeks adds up to 100 minutes a month. it might only be five minutes. not at the store or in the supply room. have everything you need at hand so you don’t have to stop and go get something or.
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. When you start a project. fragments all of your efforts. Get lots of Assignment stuff. Save time by having it all there when you need it.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
When you buy groceries. Buy bulk. The same is true at work.
Epilogue
Fragmenting your work and life effort simply delays things and uses extra time.

Put your work clothes in one area. I see them schedule appointments out of the office once a day. and you sports stuff go somewhere special. every week. prepared to find what you So. gardening stuff. Your play stuff. or. Organize those shoes.Quick Ideas 138 to 140 Seemed silly at first.
Epilogue
It seems silly. Combine all your trips out of the office—and out of the home—into one large trip or a couple of combined trips. it just fragments the day more and makes you more inefficient.
140
Don’t Make Special Trips— Combine Them
Too many times I watch people make special trips for one or two items. get that closet need quickly and efficiently. Get it organized. but it will save you time every day. every month. Organize those drawers so your work stuff is easily at hand. didn’t it? Not so silly now! Assignment An hour and a half is a subOrganize your closet. organized. As with all such things.
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. Be stantial amount of time.

even groceries). Every errand is run. efficient trip where you get it all done. They even do this during the week. everything is put away (yes. Now. that’s different. but you’ll be What fragmentation! much more efficient and get Combine these trips everything done faster. And they come back with one or two things. Eat dinner. I group all the trips together into one series of stops. Maybe a softball game followed by a BBQ. Then you can move on to other. one large trip. perhaps more enjoyable. Now you’re talking!
Epilogue
This takes planning. I don’t run errands every day. By noon on Saturday I’m done. They will come Assignment home from work. All my errands are done on Saturday morning. So plan these things and save some time. things. and I’m on to other things. into one large. Not only will you save time. Their car leaves the garage every Saturday about 10 times. my neighbors—well. Run an Group your errands into errand. Run an errand.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
For example.
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No chaos. You can base that on who has to get out the door first in the morning. ting in each other’s way. every morning is an adventure. Everyone is rushing around with no system and getting in each other’s way.Quick Ideas 140 to 141
141
Organize and Systemize Your Morning Procedure
For some people. Scheduling people seems over-controlling. It is also quite stressful and a terrible way to start your day. to your morning preparations. they would never have gotten out the door in the morning. it’s organized. My father grew up in a family of six kids. but we have a simple system Set up a system for your of getting out the door in mornings so you can effithe morning without getciently get out the door. a routine. The system should be quite simple. Consider establishing a system. But it is even important for small households. All this chaos and disorder costs time. Sometimes simply having people rise a few minutes apart and putting everyone into a sequence that best uses the homes facilities is the easiest way to do it. but in large families it is necessary. They are unorganized and chaotic.
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. Without a system. There are only two Assignment people in my house. all two years apart in age.

there why you are doing it this way. Make sure everyused to a routine and it will one knows his or her role and all work smoothly.
Epilogue
Get family members to understand that it is part of their responsibility to help the family get organized and going every morning. it takes training. will be some occasional wrinkles and changes. Yes. You Assignment need to train them and sometimes supervise them. Not only does it efficiently get you started. but it does so without a lot of stress. it doesn’t just happen—especially if there are children in the family. Start your day refreshed.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
Everyone’s system will be different. But overall. Walk everyone through Get them trained and the process.
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. and people who work the system. Once your system is in place. but having one is important. Just telling them what to do isn’t enough for youngsters. you need a system that works. not stressed!
142
Train the Family
Yep.

Later. Later still. reward yourself. I changed that to a cup of coffee. but…) to provide. Assignment Here’s a story: When I was a smoker (reformed Establish a simple reward and fairly intolerant now!) system for yourself to encourI used to complete a task age efficiency and good time or project and reward myuse. Find a similar system for yourself. Those all worked for me.Quick Ideas 141 to 143
143
Reward Yourself
Sometimes the best rewards are not those that come from others. keeps you on task. When things go as planned. and uses time wisely. when you get tasks and projects done on time. but those that we give to ourselves. I changed that to small candies. The cigarette was my way of signaling accomplishment and obtaining reward.
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. I could not have the cigarette until the task was complete. self with a cigarette. It keeps you efficient. And it works.
Epilogue
We all work for rewards of some kind: the reward of a raise. And finally. or promotion. or seeing success. the cigarettes were deadly. I rewarded myself with a short break. And the reward should be something brief and easy to do. They kept me on task and were quite simple (yeah. This little system just uses our natural human tendencies.

Smith. is going to cringe when I say this. On the routine stuff. Don’t spend more time and quality work for the than is necessary on things high-priority tasks and that simply don’t require it. personal notes from a meeting don’t have to be typed up if only for yourself. so to speak. just give ’em what is necessary. but. projects where it can make a difference. your 5th-grade teacher. there are just some things that don’t have to be better than just okay. Routine reports are often just that: routine.
Epilogue
Save time for the things that matter. On those things. Don’t try to get an A on every paper. don’t skimp. Do routine things rouSave quality time tinely.
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. Sometimes the minimum is just fine.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
144
Don’t Be a Perfectionist
Mrs. Don’t spend more time on them than Assignment necessary. Give them your best work. but: not everything has to be perfect. Of course. So just get them done. only you can know what those things truly are. for example. What? Tell me it ain’t so! Sorry.

of course. Sometimes all this communication leads to overload. is the activities at home. So how does all this communication impact your time? It owns it! Think about your home and all the communication devices you have that can attract your time the way flypaper attracts flies. And the Internet connections? Fast? Yep. Let’s see what’s availnication and entertainment able. take care of Then there is the TV—or some household chores. and of course of that time to do some fameveryone has a cell phone.Quick Ideas 144 to 145
145
Home Communication: Are You Over-Connected?
We all have a lot of communication going on at Assignment home—sometimes too Control the use of commumuch. Camped out watching baseball or football all weekend? What else did you get done? Butt sore from surfing the Internet all weekend? What else did you get done? Played video games and kicked butt all weekend? What else did you get done?
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. How about computers? work on your “honey do” list. ily activities. Use some telephone. or TVs. We spend so much time communicating that we don’t get everything done. First.

Assignment you don’t! You just happen Limit your time in front to sit in the same room toof the tube. but the experiences appropriate and quality. You get nothing accomplished. little discussion. Just coming home and plopping down in front of the tube to vegetate is not living. But don’t end up letting this communicating world control your life every night or all weekend. And great relaxation. brain matter being used. you say.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
It’s fine to have all this stuff. It’s going brain dead. But wait. Practice some self-control and get some of that other stuff done. it cannot be replaced. too. Once it’s gone. if any. Watch what is gether. family goals and objectives. We watch TV as a family. and little. There’s little spend the rest of the time on interaction.
146
TV Time Sucks Away From People Time
Speaking of television… That thing will suck the life out of you! Get control now. No.
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. and are individual.
Epilogue
Time is the thing that we run out of. either. Use it wisely.

Do things as a family.
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. Most of what we watch is garbage. Watch the good stuff. If research is correct. Work on a family project. Go somewhere. A day! There simply is not enough quality programming on any given day to justify five hours.
Assignment
Offer some alternatives to television and encourage children to do things that are more engaging or productive. get some work done on family goals and objectives.
Epilogue
Television is an incredible time-waster. and find something productive to do.
147
Control Children’s Access to TV
Children. Use your time at home for something besides disappearing into the television. the average kid watches nearly five hours of television a day. too. don’t leave them all for the weekend. We get little from it. waste a lot of time in front of that tube.Quick Ideas 145 to 147 Limit your time in front of the TV. In the evening. Limit kids’ time. ignore the rest. too.

Camping out on the Net usually is entertainment. Don’t let their brains get wasted by television and let their time get wasted by this voracious monster.
Epilogue
Research is beginning to demonstrate that there is a correlation between children’s time watching television and lower test scores. And it’s a terrible waste of their precious time in their formative years. interact with other kids. Perhaps just as importantly. or even read a book. do homework. get involved in community projects.
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. there are lots of problems and
Assignment
Keep control of the Internet. not learning.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
Encourage your children to do things other than watch television. (The Internet is not an alternative!) Encourage them to play games.
148
Control Children’s Access to the Internet
By now you know that dangers lurk on the Internet. and keep your kids safe and spending their time wisely.

You should control this access to supervise not only the content they view. If you have kids who get addicted to the Internet and neglect their schoolwork. Some close friends with three boys put their computer with Internet access in the family room. who does his own investing. but also the time they spend on the Net.Quick Ideas 147 to 149 dangers out there for children with unrestricted access to the Internet. I think he’s pretty good at it.
149
Don’t Check Your Portfolio Every Day
I have a friend. and a parent had to be in the room. The rule was that the boys could get on the Internet only after their homework was done. It’s better to keep that from happening. only for an hour. Tom.
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.
Epilogue
Is this one going to save you time? Yes. He has an account with one of the online brokers and manages his own portfolio. you’ll have to intervene.

he’s constantly checking stock prices.
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. At home he spends at least an hour every night at this task. It fragments his concentration and costs him time. A couple times each day will likely do just fine.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time
He has only one problem: he’s doing it all the time. I’d bet he spends at least two and a half hours a day at this. I stick my head in the door of his office and he’s checking stock prices. Assignment It’s probably not an addiction and not a major If you do your own investproblem if he’s doing well ing online. he doesn’t have to check every few minutes. He then goes back to work and has to reorient himself on the task or project he’s working on. The to check on the investments problem is in the fragevery 10 minutes and stay menting of his time this concentrated on your tasks. he’s doing research on his stocks or potential stock to buy. control your urge (and I think he is).
Epilogue
Tom kills a lot of time doing this. He would probably save himself an hour a day if he just limited his reviews to once each morning and once each afternoon. Over lunch. At work. does every day. To be successful at this.

Your company wants you to take that time so you can be refreshed and a better employee and member of the Assignment team.Quick Ideas 149 to 150
150
Schedule Vacations—and Take Them!
Vacations are important. I took her to task about that. Losing vacation time can be thought of as giving away money! You get this time as part of your compensation. It’s there for a reason. Of course. Inefficiency costs appreciate it. Vacations let you rest up both physically and mentally. Take those vacations. and overwhelmed by work. too. regenerate. and they never get refreshed. The more tired you You’ll be more efficient when get. you time. My friend and colleague Sally is one of those people. But too many people don’t take their vacation time and end up tired.
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. That’s why companies give you that time. and reenergize yourself. It’s time to relax. Your family will you get. She mentioned the other day that she has so much vacation time built up that she is losing it every year. the more inefficient you return. rejuvenate.

151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time Epilogue
People who don’t take vacations have been studied. They tend to be more inefficient than most, be more tired than most, and burn out earlier on various jobs than most. Don’t let this happen to you.

151
Try to Live Close to Work
Okay, not everyone can just up and move. If you are in a situation where you can, then consider moving closer to work. Why? Some people in California are now commuting more than an hour one way to get to their work. In Los Angeles this may not be helped given the cost of housing people, but that’s not true in all cities, and it may not be in yours. Assignment Many cities are seeing a resurgence of urban livIf you are in a position ing. Apartments and conto do so, consider moving dos are being built closer to your workplace. especially for people who do have the capacity to move to be closer to work. For people who’s children are grown and out of the house, this is a perfect solution.

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Quick Ideas 150 to 151 If you save just 10 minutes on your morning commute by moving closer to work, you will save 20 minutes a day, 100 minutes a week, and 400 minutes a month. That’s more than six and a half hours a month you would save!

Epilogue
Who wouldn’t like to have more than six extra hours a month available for other things?

in Communication from Marshall University. He has served as the director of media relations for both an American government organization with responsibilities for all of Europe.A. He also served as 1999 Chair of PRSA’s National Association Section and as Chair of PRSA’s East Central District in 2001 (five states) and remains on the Board of Directors of the Hoosier Chapter. after more than 15 years as an adjunct faculty member with colleges and universities around the country. Bob was
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. With a B. working on a wide variety of clients in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer arenas. Purdue University. He currently serves as a faculty member in the School of Journalism at Indiana University. and higher education.A.Chapter title here
About the Author
Bob Dittmer has more than 25 years of experience in public relations. PRSA. from John Carroll University and an M. Indianapolis. in both graduate and undergraduate programs. and accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). He was the 1998 President of the Hoosier (Indiana) Chapter. He is also an author and literary agent. marketing. He teaches public relations courses. as well as for a major NATO organization with responsibilities for public information management worldwide. is responsible for managing the public relations sequence. he is also dedicated to his profession. and serves as the marketing and retention officer for the school. Bob has more than 15 years experience in public relations and advertising agencies.

live in Indianapolis. This has led to the book 151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time. Susan.151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time elected to membership in the Indianapolis Public Relations Society in 1998. Bob has spent years experiencing and examining almost every kind of time-waster you can imagine.
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. He is currently at work editing another of the 151 Quick Ideas books as well as co-writing another book on writing. Bob and his wife. Over the years he has collected the ideas he and others have developed to solve these time challenges.